Elements of a Maelstrom
by 24CaratCoal
Summary: Another Naruto/Avatar cross over. Naruto ends up in the Avatar world, see what kind of chaos insues. Terrible at summations, read if you're interested, don't if you're not. 24CC Rated M for language, violence and possible gore.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or Naruto. They are respectively owned by Nickelodeon and Kishimoto Masashi and I make no profit from writing this.  
Author's note at the end.

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Chapter Key

=#= Chapter number

~*~*~  
& Scene transitions  
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=( o )= Flashback Beginning

=(__)= Flashback end

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=1=

Dense fog settled over the stagnant water of the massive jungle-like swamp, giving an ominous feel to the already miasmal environment. A low growl of determination filled the air as a fox larger than most horses sprinted through the maze of trees, occasionally running across the trunks to save that would otherwise have been spent getting tripped up by the intricate network of roots that seemed to sprawl out endlessly. The cause for the creature's apparent haste was easy enough to spot whenever it paused long enough in the swamp for any watching eyes to see, clinging onto the three tailed fox's blood red hackles was a human boy with sunshine blond hair dressed in a bright orange and blue coat and matching orange pants.::

"Wake up boy." The fox said in a deep basso growl after it finally came to a full stop, turning it's head to look back at it's burden before barking louder. "I said wake up!"

"I... Heard you the first time... Furball." The pale boy responded weakly.

"Then you should have answered the first time, whelp." It snarled at him. "I found a small settlement," The beast paused for a moment, looking somewhat winded. "I've reached my limit for holding this form, you'll have to go there on foot, I'll keep feeding you my youki for as long as I can- but you'll have to hurry, I've used up too much of my power and I need to rest soon."

"So much... For the all powerful Kyuubi." The boy sniped before falling face first into the water as the fox turned into a blood colored mist and absorbed into him.

"Enough wisecracks, move!" The fox's voice ordered from inside his head as he got to his feet.

The orange clad blond just grunted in response as he felt the corrosive power of the fox flowing through his body like liquid fire, the same power that had kept him alive when a hand was put through his chest not just once but twice inside of ten minutes. As he pushed forward through the thigh deep weather, he caught sight of the encampment that the fox had seen minutes before with its superior senses. The blond let out a determined growl of his own as he picked up the pace, coming close enough to hear the voices of people speaking.::

"There is absolutely nothing mysterious about the swamp." He heard a young man in blue say a moment before he reached the shore- as well as a moment before he heard a dreadful wail from something in the swamp behind him that caused the three out-of-place people too look over toward him at the sudden sound.

"Hello," The blond coughed as soon as they saw him. "Is there a medic in the house?" He managed to quip before passing out and collapsing in the water.

"He's hurt!" The dark skinned girl called out to her companions as she drug him up onto the shore.

"What happened to him?" The bald boy with arrows on his head and hands asked as soon as he saw holes in his jacket and shirt and the jagged scars on his chest.

"I-I don't know Aang," She remarked, drawing water out of her water skin with a smooth motion of her hand, unable to take her eyes off his wounds. "I've never seen anything like this."

"Now, what are the odds of something like this happening, with the skinny feller saying nothing was mysterious about the swamp, the Potbellied Owlchicken screeching and this new feller poppin' up outta nowhere suddenly?" A lanky swamp dweller asked in a heavily accented drawl as the young woman set her water shrouded hands to the injured boy's chest.

"Pretty slim I reckon." The potbellied man beside him answered as a worried look creased the girl's face.

"What's wrong Katara?" Aang asked quietly, noticing her expression.

"Turn him over." She said in a hushed tone, watching her companion's face when he saw the holes and scarring on the other side of the unconscious stranger's body. "Something went all the way through his chest, but somehow he's still alive."

"What? That's impossible." The boy with the pony tail said, moving over to join his friend.

"I know, this wound goes straight though his heart." Katara stated, pointing to the scar in the middle of his chest. "But, somehow, he didn't just survive, he healed."

"Why is he unconscious then?" The dark skinned boy asked, glancing back to the natives who were chatting among themselves like nothing was happening.

"From what I can tell? He seems to be suffering from severe exhaustion and some major chi blockage." She remarked, shaking her head. "I've helped with the chi flow as much as I can for the moment, but I would honestly say he just needs to rest."

~*~*~

Katara hummed quietly to herself as she moved about the somewhat crudely fashioned branch hut, tending to the mysterious blond boy that had appeared out of the swamp the night before. It had taken little effort for them to remove his jacket and shirt, though it was unlikely either could ever be used again because of their condition, and she was definitely surprised to see he had dozens of faded scars all over his torso which made her anxious for him to wake up so she could find out what had been done to him. More to her surprise though was how quickly his newest scars seemed to be faded, every few hours they seemed to lessen themselves somehow- and they faded even faster every time she used her bending to heal him.

"Well, you're pretty enough to be an angel- but I have to ask," She heard the injured boy say quietly, drawing afull attention to him. "Who's bright idea was it to make heaven smell like a swamp?"

"You should be resting, you've been hurt pretty badly." She said, moving over to his side. "Since you're already awake though, how do you feel?"

"Like I got struck by lightning a couple times." He answered with a pained chuckled. "Where am I anyway?"

"Foggy swamp." Katara responded, getting a curiously raised eyebrow from him. "Hey, I didn't name it."

"I kind of figured." He nodded, looking her over with his intense blue eyes carefully. "What's your name?"

"I'm Katara, and you are?" She asked softly.

"Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato." He answered, managing to give her a foxy grin.

"Kono-what?" Katara asked, it was her turn to raise and eyebrow as he forced himself to sit up.

"Konohagakure no Sato, the main shinobi village in the Land of Fire." He stated, blinking as she suddenly stepped away from him and moved her hand to the water skin at her waist. "Okay? First, what did I say, and second, you to realize you don't have a weapon don't you?"

"You're from the Fire Nation." She said bitterly, drawing the water form her skin.

"Neat trick." Naruto grunted as he got off of the cot he had been laying in. "I've never seen a jutsu like that before."

"Stay back, or I swear I will hurt you." She growl, causing him to tense up and give her a cold look that sent a child down her spine.

"I have no idea what you can do with that little bit of water, but if you think you can kill me- go ahead and do it." He said in an emotionless tone of voice as his eyes softened. "Who knows, I'm weak enough at the moment, maybe you'll succeed where all the other assassins have failed."

"Are you calling me an assassin?" Katara asked, scowling at the thought.

"No, your eyes are too soft." He said with a slight tilt of his head after a moment of looking at her. "You've never killed anyone before, have you?"

"No, but don't think I won't if you take one step closer, Fire Nation scum." She spat at him.

"Fire Nation, Fire Nation, why do you keep calling me that?" He growled at her. "I told you, I'm a shinobi from the Land of Fire, I've never heard of the Fire Nation before."

"Hey, Katara how's..." A somewhat high-pitched male voice called out as a tanned young man entered the hut to see the stand off. "Okay, I'm missing something here."

"You and me both." The blond stated in an annoyed tone as he looked to the newcomer. "We were just talking, I told her where I'm from and for some reason she starts looking at me like I'm going to eat her first born."

"He's from the Fire Nation." Katara growled, within a second the young man had drawn the machete that he wore on his him.

"Two on one against the half-dead guy, yeah that's fair." Naruto grumbled as he shifted into a more battle-ready stance. "And I told you already, I'm from the Land of Fire, I have no idea what the hell..." He barely managed to dodge the stream of water that suddenly lashed out at him, cutting straight through stick wall behind him. "Hey! Watch it!"

"You're pretty fast for a half-dead guy." The young man remarked.

"Years of dodging anything and everything that can be picked up and thrown." The blond said with a small shrug, glancing between the two quickly.

"Right, surrender and you won't be hurt." He offered.

"Uh-huh, says the guy holding the machete and glaring at me like I killed his puppy, what are my other options?" Naruto asked, shifting his feet again.

"We beat the crap out of you and take you prisoner." The dark haired teen said plainly.

"I'll take option three." He grunted before slamming through the wall and taking off across the small patch of dry land.

"Hey! You're up!" A cheerful voice called out from above as a bald kid dropped to the ground in front of him.

"Can't talk, running for life!" Naruto shouted as he made a break for the swamp.

"Aang! Stop him, he's from the Fire Nation!" Katara shouted as soon as she spotted the tattooed monk.

"Land of Fire! I said _Land_ of Fire! Why is that so hard for you to understand?!" The blond shouted over his shoulder as he touched foot to the water.

"Wait, what's going on here?" Aang asked as Naruto came to a stop on the surface of the water with his hands resting just above the now visible seal on his stomach.

"I have no idea! Ask those two!" The blond said loudly as he pointed.

"He's from the Fire Nation." Katara said as she came to a rest beside the bald kid.

"Why the hell do you keep saying that?!" Naruto shouted, ignoring the ache in his injured lung and the taste of copper in the back of his mouth. "I don't know that the hell this Fire Nation you keep talking about is!" The taste became stronger as blood started to fill his mouth to the point he had to spit it out. "I am a shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato in the Land of Fire! Get it straight!"

"Calm down brat, you're aggravating your wounds." The deep basso of the fox's voice chided him in his mind.

"Shut the hell up Furball! Nobody was talking to you!" He shouted back.

"Okay, I'm feeling confused again." The boy in blue stated at the sudden out burst. "Did he just go crazy?"

"I-I think so." Katara said with a nod, bringing the blond's attention back to them.

"What I want to know, is how is he doing that." Aang said, pointing to Naruto's feet.

"Tell the psycho with the hair-loops to back off and put the water away and I'll tell you." Naruto said just loud enough to be heard as he pointed to Katara.

"Katara, I don't think he's going to hurt us." The boy said with a shrug.

"What about me?" The taller boy asked, feeling somewhat left out.

"You I can take down in my sleep." The fox-boy said before spitting out pink-tinged wad of blood and spittle.

"Okay, everyone just calm down." Aang said before things could erupt again. "Katara, Sokka back off a bit and give um- what was your name again?"

"Naruto." The blond stated calmly.

"Right, give Naruto some space." The kid said with a nod. "Naruto, why don't you come back over here so we can talk a bit more comfortably."

"I like him where he is, there's plenty of water." Katara said bitingly as she and her brother backed away several steps.

"You have enough chakra to control all this?" Naruto said, suddenly looking very concerned.

"What's chakra?" Sokka whispered to his sister, getting a shrug from her before he looked back toward the blond on the water- or at least where he had been. "Hey! Where'd he go?!"

"Over here." Naruto said from behind Aang, causing everyone to jump as they looked toward him.

"What the? How the? But, you were..." Sokka sputtered as he looked between the still rippling water where Naruto had been and where he was now.

"How'd you do that?" The tattooed boy asked, looking back at the blond kid behind him.

"Body flicker." He grunted as Katara moved her hand toward her water skin again instinctively. "Oi! What the hell are you doing that for?"

"Get away from Aang." She warned him in a harsh tone.

"Hey, everyone just settle down." Aang said calmly as he put himself between the two. "Katara, put your water away and Naruto, you probably shouldn't do that body-flicker thing again until we get everything sorted out- alright?"

"Fine by me." Naruto said, coughing once before spitting out another mouthful of blood.

"A-are you going to be alright?" The hairless youth asked in a concerned tone.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, all this exertion just aggravated my lung a little is all." He said with a nod. "So, Aang-san, what can I do to help untangle this mass of confusion?"

"Well, you can tell us about yourself for starters." The boy offered.

"Right, well, I was born in Konoha twelve years ago, and I entered the academy when I turned six," The blond started explaining as he rested his hands behind his head and squinted his eyes. "I failed the graduation exam three times before I finally managed to become a genin, I'm a member of the four-man cell Team Seven, my favorite food is ramen and my dream is to be the next Hokage. Anything else?"

"That... made no sense at all." Sokka spoke up after a moment of tense silence. "I've never heard of this Kono-whatever-place, and what the heck is ramen?"

"You're kidding right? Have you guys been living under a rock or something?" Naruto asked as his face twisted into an expression of disbelief before he sighed and shook his head. "Never mind, if we're going to get anywhere, I'm going to need my weapon pouch."

"You mean that beige bag you had on the back of your pants?" Sokka asked, getting a nod. "Sorry, no can do, I saw how many weapons were in that thing.

"As much as I'm having the urge to stab things, it's not my weapons that I'm after." The young blond said with a small sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "In my pouch, there are five scrolls, those are what I need at the moment."

"Oh, I'll be right back then." The brunet said before running off into one of the huts.

"Why do you need the scrolls?" Aang asked curiously as soon as he heard Sokka rummaging though things.

"One of them is a map, and it's easier to have him bring all of them instead of trying to find the right one." He shrugged as Sokka came running back out.

"Here they are." Sokka declared as he arrived at the blond's side before shoving the scrolls in his arms off onto the other boy and rejoining his sister.

"Thank you, you'll all need to come closer." Naruto said after setting all five scroll on the ground and opening one to reveal a brightly colored map, looking up at the trio as they moved closer and pointing to a small dot near the center of the largest red shape on the map. "This is Konoha, or Konohagakure no Sato if you prefer a mouthful every time you say the name, right in the heart of the Land of Fire."

"Okay, pretending you're not crazy for a minute- I have to say that your map is completely wrong." Sokka stated as he leaned over. "I mean, if this is supposed to be the Fire Nation," He paused when he literally felt Naruto scowling at him. "Land of Fire, what ever. What are all these other shapes around it."

"To save time, I'll skip over the dozens of minor countries and just explain the big ones since you seem to have flunked geography." He grunted, getting a scowl from Sokka as he moved his finger to a sand colored mass. "This, is the Land of Wind and here," He shifted his finger to a small dot closer to the border of the country. "Is Sunagakure no Sato, the Hidden sand."

"Wait, what do you mean Land of Wind, there isn't any Land of Wind." Aang said, getting a strange look from the blond before he looked back to Katara. "Hey, Katara, where'd you put our map?"

"I put it back in your bag after I got done with it." She said without taking her eyes of Naruto.

"Right, I'll be back in a minute- don't kill each other please." He said before running off behind one of the huts, leaving a large cloud of dust and a nice breeze in his wake.

"Wow, he's fast." Naruto said, blinking slightly as the boy came running back toward them with a different kind of scroll in his hand. "Really fast."

"Found it!" He grinned as he skidded to a stop with another breeze, setting his scroll down over Naruto's and unrolling it to reveal a completely different map.

"Okay, I'll bite." The blond said blankly as he stared at the various landmasses on the paper. "What is that."

"A map of the world, since you seem to have flunked geography." Katara sniped at him.

"Right, excuse me for a minute." Naruto said, taking as deep of a breath as he could manage as he stood up and turned toward the swamp. "I'll be over here if you need me." The three companions watched curiously as he walked behind one of the trees before shouting. "What the hell did you do you over-grown, flea-ridden, dimwitted pathetic excuse of a Dust Bunny?!"

"Katara, he's crazy isn't he?" Sokka swallowed as he listened to the tangent of swear-words, curses and all around not-nice things shouted by the blond at nothing they could see.

*~*~*

Nearly an hour had passed since the blond's ten minute swear-athon ended, leaving only the white noise of the swamp to fill the heads of the three travelers. Aang had checked on Naruto a while after his unforeseen outburst and found him sitting on one of the raised roots with his legs crossed as his arms draped loosely across them so that the second knuckles of his loosely balled hands touched. It wasn't hard for the slender monk to figure out that he was meditating, though for some reason the blond didn't look at all more relaxed, and judging by the scrunched look on his face, he had something on his mind. It seemed for some reason out of character for the blond to be so very still to the tattooed boy but that didn't keep him from taking a seat on one of the other roots and meditating while he waited.::

"Well, that's just wonderful." Naruto growled to himself as soon as his eyes opened.

"Hey, Naruto, how... um, how are you feeling?" Aang asked opening his eyes as soon as he heard the other boy hit the water, once again he was somehow standing on the surface.

"Oh, not to bad all things considered." The blond shrugged, looking towards the encampment. "You should probably go get your friends."

"Why?" The Airbender said, slowing his own drop into the water instinctively so that he barely made a splash as he sank into water up to his knees.

"I know how I got here." He grunted as he walked across the water to dry land with the young monk working to keep up with him.

"I have really got to learn how to do that." Aang comment to himself as he strode through the water as quickly as he could. "Sokka, Katara?"

"What is it Aang?" Katara said, poking her head out from one of the huts at the sound of his voice.

"I think Naruto wants to talk with us."

"What's the crazy guy want now?" Sokka sighed as he walked out from behind a different hut with one of Naruto's scrolls in his hand, turning both it and his head in different directions. "What the heck does this thing say?!"

"I'm not crazy." Naruto said, snatching the scroll away from Sokka and rolling it back up.

"Gah! Don't do that!" The Water Tribe boy shouted, patting his hand against his chest rapidly. "I thought Aang told you not to do that body-flicker thing."

"He did." Naruto grunted, motioning for the other boy to follow him as he walked toward Aang and Katara.

"So, uh, Naruto, what did you mean when you said that you know how you got here?" Aang asked after a moment of Katara silently glaring at the newcomer.

"Long story short, I'm from a completely different world." The blond stated plainly.

"That's crazy, there's no such thing as different worlds." Sokka said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Really, then explain our different maps." Naruto stated.

"Anyone can make a fake map, especially one as crappy as yours." He huffed.

"I'll grant you that. But why would I do something like that?" The blond asked, glancing over at him.

"Because you're crazy?" The brunet asked, elongating the first word.

"I told you, I'm not crazy." Naruto grumped.

"Well, you were kind of shouting at yourself- that's a little crazy." Aang admitted nervously.

"I wasn't shouting at myself." He sighed, shaking his head. "I'm well aware how it looked, but trust me- I wasn't talking to myself."

"Why should we trust you? You're from the Fire Nation!" Katara exclaimed.

"Alright, just going by your reaction, I'm going to say these Fire Nation people are pretty bad guys." Naruto said quietly.

"Gee, let's think about this, they started the war over a hundred years ago and wiped out all of the Air Nomads, yeah, you're people are pretty bad." She growled.

"Right. I'm going to humor your for a minute here." He said with a shake of his head. "Hypothetically, if I was from this Fire Nation, I probably would have attacked you by now, so why haven't I?"

"You're injured." She stated loudly.

"Yes, but I can still take you even in this condition." He stated, grabbing Sokka by the front of the shirt with his left hand and lifting him from the ground effortlessly. "See."

"Sokka!" Katara shouted, lashing out at Naruto with her water and cutting him across the chest only to see the blond turn into a log an instant later as Sokka fell to the ground. "What the..." Before she could finish her question something grabbed her ankles and yanked her underground, leaving only her head exposed as Naruto walked in from of her and crouched down.

"I told you, even in this condition, I can still take you." He grunted.

"You're an Earthbender!" Aang exclaimed as soon as his shock faded away.

"A what-now?" The blond asked, squinting at the bald kid.

"An Earthbender, how else could you have done that to Katara?" He asked, regarding his partially buried friend.

"That? That's just a simple trick, anyone with a little chakra control can do that if they want to." Naruto stated, glancing toward Katara.

"What's chakra?" The boy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's a combination of the spiritual and physical energies our bodies produce." Naruto explained as he dropped the rest of the way to the ground to sit. "With a little training, a person can learn to mold chakra and use it to perform jutsu like the body replacement I did before Katara hit me and the one I did to bury her like that- or even walk on water like I was doing earlier."

"So, if you're not an Earthbender, what are you?" Aang asked, looking slightly confused.

"I'm a ninja, a fighter trained in the arts of stealth and combat." He answered with a grin.

"You do know that orange and stealth don't mix, right?" Sokka asked after a minute of looking around at the three others.

"Only if you're an amateur." The blond said with a smirk. "A well trained ninja can wear just about anything and not be caught."

"That's great and all, just one question though." Katara said in a sweet tone. "Could somebody get me out of here?!"

"You're staying put." The young shinobi stated calmly, earning a glare from the girl.

"Why?" She growled.

"Because you've tried to kill me twice already." He grunted.

"He has a point Katara." Sokka admitted with a shrug. "Though I'm wondering why you didn't do this before."

"I wasn't in any condition to do this earlier." He said with a shrug.

"Why not, it was only an hour ago." The dark haired boy commented.

"I... Heal at an unusual rate, I was still recovering from my injuries then." He admitted slowly. "And, most of my chakra was burned up getting here so I was pretty heavily exhausted."

"You never did say Naruto, how did you get here?" Aang asked quietly.

"I'm not sure on the details, but the last thing I remember before I wound up in this place was fighting with my teammate." Naruto answered, unconsciously bringing his hand up to the scars on his chest.

"Why, were you guys training or something?" Sokka asked.

"He betrayed our village."The blond answered quietly, getting everyone's full attention.

"Why?" Katara asked in a softer tone than she had previously used with him.

"For power." Naruto said bitterly. "His goal in life... No, that's not right. His obsession in life, is to kill his older brother. He's willing to give up everything to do that."

"That's awful, why would he want to kill his brother so badly?" She asked, glancing toward her own brother for a moment. "I mean, I know I get mad at Sokka all the time, but I'd never want to kill him."

"I should probably give you the history between them so it makes a bit more sense then." He said, pausing for a moment as if to think of the right words. "Up until four years ago, there was a clan in my village that many hailed as one of the best shinobi clans in the Elemental Nations. They were called the Uchiha, my teammate and his brother came from this clan. During out time at the academy, Sasuke was considered a genius ninja, top of the class in everything, but his brother was something else. Itachi wasn't just a genius, he was an absolute prodigy, there was nothing he couldn't do and there wasn't a person in the village that didn't know about him. Graduated the academy at seven, activated his Sharingan by eight, he was a chunin by the age of ten and an ANBU captain by the time he was thirteen years old."

"I don't know what half that stuff is, and I'm impressed." Sokka commented, getting a small nod from Aang. "So, what happened."

"Uchiha Itachi snapped, he killed his entire clan, all two-hundred and thirty-seven members." Naruto said quietly. "Everyone except for himself and his little brother Sasuke."

"That's... How could anyone do that?" Katara asked quietly.

"With a sword and incredible skill with ninjutsu." Naruto said darkly. "I was one of the first people to arrive after the massacre, I saw Itachi running away from his home covered in blood so I went to go see what had happened. When I arrived, it was everything I could do not to fall to the ground and puke at what I saw."

"How old were you?" The brunette girl asked softly.

"Seven, just a couple months away from turning eight." He stated before continuing. "I started to look around to see if anyone was still alive, it took a while but I finally found Sasuke- lying on the ground and shivering, I'd never seen anyone look so pale before."

"What happened next?" Sokka asked, leaning forward slightly

"An ANBU squad arrived with the Hokage, one of them tried to blame me for what happened until the Old Man glared at him- heh, I always thought it was funny how easily he could shut people up by doing that." Naruto said with a dry chuckle.

"Why would they try to blame you?" Aang asked innocently.

"That's a long story that I'd rather not get into right now." He answered blandly. "Anyway, after that nigh, Sasuke's life became consumed by his obsession with killing his brother, he stopped talking with the other kids and just completely isolated himself until we finally graduated. He was the top of the class and we got put on the same team because I was at the bottom."

"Why were you at the bottom of the class?" The tattooed boy asked with genuine surprise in his voice. "You're pretty good from what I've seen."

"Among other reasons, I had absolutely horrible chakra control, I've gotten better of course- to the point I can fight with the geniuses of my generation on an even level." He said with a shrug. "That's part of what sent Sasuke over the edge I guess, watching the village idiot and class clown catch up to you and start to surpass you in just a few months can't be easy on an ego the size of Sasuke's."

"So, he betrayed your village because he wasn't better than you anymore?" Katara asked, giving him a dumbfounded look. "That doesn't sound like a very good reason to me."

"Yeah, but you haven't lost your entire family and been tortured to the point of insanity either." Naruto pointed out. "Sasuke was. The first time I actually met Itachi... Well, that's a different story, anyway, after Itachi found me, Sasuke found both of us. He got this crazed look in his eyes when he charged up a chidori and ran at his brother as fast as he could. Itachi just swatted his attack aside like it was nothing and the broke his arm."

"Wow, this Itachi guy sounds as bad as the Fire Lord." Sokka remarked. "I get how having your arm broken is painful and all, but how exactly it that torture?"

"That wasn't the torture, that was just partially to show the difference between them." The blond said, shaking his head slightly. "He knocked Sasuke back into the wall and pinned him there. What he said next sent chills down my spine."

"What did he say?" Aang asked, looking on for a moment when Naruto raised a hand and started to clear his throat.

"You're weak, Sasuke," Naruto whispered in a completely different voice, one far deeper than his own and devoid of emotions. "Why are you weak? I'll tell you. It's because you lack. Hatred."

"Th-that was pretty creepy." Sokka said, getting a nod from Katara as Aang swallowed the lump in his throat. "What happened next?"

"He trapped Sasuke in an illusion called Tsukiyomi that made him relive the night Itachi slaughtered everyone in their clan for for three days." The blond answered. "It put him into a coma for a month."

"Why didn't you do anything?" Katara asked after a moment.

"I tried, his partner, Hoshigaki Kisami- who looks like the bastard offspring of a big blue fish and a human- used a sword called Samehada to drain all of my chakra before I could help." He huffed indignantly. "I can honestly count on one hand the number of times I've completely run out of chakra, and that had to be the scariest of them."

"He has a sword that can drain a person of their chakra?" Aang asked. "Sounds scary."

"Yeah, if Ero-sennin hadn't shown up when he did, they probably would have taken me." Naruto said with a nod.

"Wait, we're really getting off track here, how did all this all lead up to you fighting your teammate and winding up in the swamp?" Sokka asked, trying to redirect the conversation.

"Well, cutting through all the details, Ero-sennin and I found his old teammate and brought her back to the village." Naruto explained. "She brought Sasuke back out of his coma but he was different when he woke up, he seemed even more obsessed with killing Itachi- if that's even possible- and the two of us ended up getting in a fight on the roof of the hospital. Things got out of had, he was about to use the Chidori against me and I was about to use the Rasengan on him, our other teammate, Sakura, nearly got caught in the middle of it before Kakashi-sensei showed up and deflected us both before anyone got hurt."

"Again, how did that..." Sokka started to say before Naruto slapped a hand over his mouth.

"I'm getting there, it's not easy to sum up this much time in such a short story so stop interrupting." The blond stated. "I'm almost caught up, just let me finish." Sokka gave a small nod and Naruto removed his hand. "Alright, both of us ended up getting thrown into the water towers on that were on the roof, his Chidori punched a pretty good sized hole in the front of his tank and kind of warped the metal around his hand- my Rasengan just kind of ground through the metal a little and put a hole about the side of my little finger in the front."

"You're kidding, he puts his hand through a metal water tower and you only put a tiny hole in another one- this Rasengan thing sounds pretty weak to me." Sokka commented at the mental image.

"Ero-sennin showed me the real damage it did after Sasuke left, Sokka." Naruto said blandly. "The Rasengan blew out the entire back of a four meter tall water tower.::

"O-okay, that's kind of scary." The Water Tribe boy admitted.

"Yeah, maybe two or three days ago, depending on how long I've been out, Sasuke left the village with a group of people that called themselves the Sound Four." Naruto said with a nod. "I was part of the five man squad sent out after them, we ended up getting separated as we chased the Oto-nin down, each of us ended up breaking off to fight a different member. Shikamaru and I had finally managed to corner the last member, a red-haired girl with a really foul mouth, and I got the barrel Sasuke was in. Before I could do anything else though, this guy named Kimimaro showed up, kicked me away like I was a piece of trash, told Tayuya- the red-head I told you about- that he was going to kill her when she got done with Shikamaru and me. Shikamaru sent me after Sasuke, I don't know what happened to him or any of the others. That Kimimaro guy had to be one of the toughest people I've ever though, no matter what I did, it just wasn't enough to beat him and his freaky bones. Half-way through the fight, Sasuke finally got out of the barrel and started walking away, I tried to follow him but Kimimaro stopped me and he was about to finish me off until Lee showed up and saved my ass." The blond paused to take a breath as his jaw tightened.

"What happened next?" Katara asked after a quiet moment.

"I left Lee behind and followed after Sasuke like he told me to," He sighed. "I followed Sasuke to a place called the Valley of the End, it's the place of the final battle between the first Hokage and Uchiha Madara- the founders of my home village."

"Uchiha, you mean like Sasuke and Itachi?" Sokka asked.

"Yeah, he's one of their ancestors, I'm not sure which one exactly but he is from the same clan." Naruto said with a nod. "A bit of irony there actually, him being one of the last Uchiha and me planning on taking the title of Hokage. Anyway, that's when the big fight started, I told him that I wouldn't let Orochimaru take him. He told me he would kill Itachi, even if he had to sell his soul to do it. I'm not sure how long the fight lasted, but at some point he managed to get inside my guard enough that I couldn't stop his chidori and he put his hand right through my chest." As he spoke, Naruto pointed to the scar on the right side of his chest. "I managed to deflect it enough that it missed my heart, but it still hurt like hell- I lost a good portion of my lung."

"So, that's what those scars are from." The buried Waterbender said as realization dawned on her.

"Yeah, these are what Chidori scars look like." He confirmed with a nod.

"So, how did you survive something like that?" Sokka spoke up again after a long pause on Naruto's part. "I mean, you'd have to be able to heal almost instantly to survive something like that."

"My burden is a curse and a gift all in one." The blond boy stated cryptically. "Anyway, after Sasuke tried to kill me, I began drawing on more and more of the power that healed my wound and the two of us fought harder than ever before. I remember everything, but it all happened so fast it kind of blurs together. Toward the end though, I pushed him so far he had to rely on the cursed seal Orochimaru gave him, he transformed into something else. He started to form another Chidori and I formed another Rasengan and we both jumped at each other and our attacks collided, they canceled each other out like they did the first time- kind of anyway- I remember everything got so bright, we both reached out to kill each other and..."

"And what?" Katara asked.

"And I couldn't do it, I pulled back at the last second, he forced his chakra into his hand to make a crude chidori and put it through my chest." Naruto sighed. "After that, you guys basically know the rest."

"Why couldn't you hit him?" Aang asked quietly.

"H-he was my best friend." Naruto said with a resigned sigh after a long silence broken only by the white noise of the swamp. "Twisted as it sounds, Uchiha Sasuke was my best friend."

"Then why did he try to kill you?" Sokka asked after a moment. "That doesn't exactly sound like the friendly thing to do."

"He said he needed eyes like his brother's, and the only way to get them was to kill his closest friend. Ergo, me." The demon host said. "All throughout the fight, all I wanted to do was keep my promise to bring him back to Sakura alive, so I held back. I took two Chidoris through the chest, and I still failed."

"You held back while he was trying to kill you." The blue clad fighter said quietly. "Could you have won if you wanted to kill him too?"

"I wouldn't have gotten hit with the first Chidori if I wanted him dead." Naruto grunted sourly.

Only the sounds of the swamp filled the air as the four sat in silence.::

"So, what are you going to do now?" Aang asked, feeling uncomfortable with the silence after Naruto's story.

"Well, I'm going to get Katara out of there first off." Naruto stated, moving behind the girl before shoving his hand into the ground directly behind her neck and ripping her from the hole with ease. "Now though, I don't know. Everyone probably thinks I'm dead," He paused before giving a humorless laugh. "I wonder how big the party is going to be."

"Party?" All three of them asked at the same time.

"I am, probably, the single most hated person in all of Konohagakure no Sato, when the villagers find out that I'm 'dead' they are going to throw a party." He grunted.

"Why do they hate you?" Aang asked quickly. "I mean, you seem like a really nice guy to me."

"The simple answer is that I was born in the wrong place at the wrong time, I really don't want to get into it right now." The blond shinobi stated, rubbing the back of his neck. "What about you guys? What's your story, and more importantly, why did you two attack me when you though I was Fire Nation? Whatever that is."

"Well, over a hundred years ago, the four nations of our world used to live in peace," Katara began slowly. "At least until the Fire Nation started the war that's been ravaging the world since."

"War, huh? Closest I've seen to war was when Oto and Suna invaded my home a few months back during the chunin exams." Naruto said with a slow nod. "I was only in one of the really big battles, took everything I had in me to take Gaara down."

"Who's Gaara?" Aang asked.

"A kid about our age, he's a lot like me actually." He answered grimly. "That's a story for another time though."

"Ah, come on, I want to hear it." The bald kid whined.

"Sorry, I'm just really tired at the moment, I still haven't fully recovered from my fight with Sasuke yet." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Maybe I'll tell you if we meet in the future."

"Why don't you come with us?" Aang offered.

"Yeah! If you were with us, we could kick even more Fire Nation butt than ever before!" Sokka exclaimed as he jumped up. "Maybe you could teach me how to do that neen-jut-su stuff you do."

"Nin-ju-tsu." Naruto corrected after a short pause. "I'm not really sure if it's such a good idea."

"Come on, it'd be great!" Aang pushed, running over to his side quickly. "We could hang out and talk. You could tell us about your world while we show you ours!"

"I-I don't really know." He said slowly, looking over at Katara for a moment. "I really don't want to cause any trouble."

"Hey, Katara, what do you think about Naruto coming with us?"Sokka asked upon seeing Naruto's brief glance.

"Yeah Katara, what do you think?!" Aang asked cheerfully. "Think about how much fun it would be to have him along!"

"Much fun could be had by all." Sokka added wisely as he nodded.

"I-I guess, it's better than leaving him out here all by himself." She said after a moment of quiet consideration.

"Really, I don't want to be a burden." The blond said, forcing himself to smile at them.

"Ah, come on, we don't bite!" Sokka declared as he marched over.

"You two aren't going to stop until I agree are you?" He asked, looking between the other two boys before sighing when they shook their heads. "Fine, you win. I'll come."

"Yes!" The bald boy exclaimed joyously before running over and grabbing Naruto's hand. "Come on, you've got to meet Appa!"

"Who's Appa?" Naruto asked as he was pulled along.

"My flying bison!" Aang explained as he led his new companion behind a building to see a massive brown-striped cream colored creature with six legs and a beaver-like tail chewing eating a pile of dried swamp grass.

"Flying bison?" He repeated slowly as he looked at the horned beast.

"Yeah, it sounds impossible, but he really can fly." Sokka said from behind them.

"Sokka, I'm a ninja. Impossible for us just means that nobody has gotten to it yet." He stated with a smirk.

"Really?" Aang asked excitedly.

"You saw me walking on water that soaked you to your unmentionables, what do you think?" He pointed out quietly.

"Point taken. Hey, Appa, this is our new friend Naruto!" He said, quickly turning his attention to the bison. "Come say hello."

"Uh, hello Appa." Naruto said as the massive bison lumbered over- shaking the earth slightly with each step before stopping in front of the two boys and inhaling deeply. "Aang, what's he doing?" He managed to asked the monk a moment before a massive tongue rolled out of the bison's mouth and ran over him from toe to spiky-haired head.

"He likes you!" Aang declared loudly as Naruto shuddered heavily. "What's wrong?"

"The last time I got licked like that, I was swallowed whole by a giant snake." Naruto stated as he shuddered again. "Let me tell you, that... was, absolutely, the single most disgusting thing that has ever happened to me."

"How'd you get swallowed by a giant snake?" Sokka asked, raising a curious eyebrow at him.

"It was during the chunin exams, I got blown away from a freakishly strong blast of wind- five minutes of defying gravity later, I smacked into a tree and about ten seconds after that I was eaten." He recalled with another shiver. "Stupid snake ate my onigiri."

"How'd you get out alive?" Katara asked curiously.

"Like this." Naruto said, moving his hands in front of his chest to form a cross seal as he focused his chakra- unaware of the winding seal that appeared on his stomach as he did so. "Shadow Replication Technique." An exact duplicate appeared at his side as soon as he finished the name, lasting only an instant before it dispersed in a cloud of smoke while the real Naruto passed out and fell to the ground like a puppet with it's strings cut.

"What happened?" Sokka asked as he and his sister ran over to the boy.

"I don't know yet, give me a minute." Katara said, drawing her water around her hands with a smooth motion as Sokka turn him onto his back so she could lay her hands on him properly. "He'll be fine, he's just exhausted himself again."

* * *

**A/N: And That's a Wrap for Chapter one. Alright, this is my first attempt at an Avatar/Naruto Crossover- why? I dunno, the idea caught my attention and I was bored I guess. It's not much, but it's what I've got for now. So, please tell me what you think by posting a review whether you think it's good, bad or you are impartial to it. Also, if you spot any blatant errors that I missed I would really be grateful if you were to point them out- and no, for the obsessive compulsive among you, that is not permission to nit-pick my entire story apart. I'm not really sure what the full plot is at the moment, I'll probably keep it near to Avatar's plot for the moment because I do want to get Toph into this little chaotic mix of mine before I start to diverge too far. Well, that's it for now and thank you for reading.**

**P A/N: I can't tell you when the next chapter will be out because it is just being started so it'll be a while.  
**


	2. Chapter 2

=2=

Lazuline eyes opened slowly as Naruto shivered when his mind registered the cold his body was feeling, for a sleepy moment he wondered if everything he had seen and done had been a dream. At least he wondered that until he saw leaning lazily against the back of what seemed to be a very large, rounded seat as he sharpened his machete whetstone. The young blond gave a small grunt as he closed his eyes momentarily and tried to shake away the strange waking dream, only to find that Sokka was now right in his face and grinning.::

"Crazy ninja guy! You're up!" He declared, causing Naruto to jump slightly.

"Ohayo Gozaimasu Sokka." Naruto mumbled just loud enough to be heard. "How long have I been out?"

"About three days." Katara's voice answered from his other side, drawing his attention to her. "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good all in all." The blond answered as he saw up, noticing he was wearing an over-sized blue shirt. "A little stiff, a lot hungry."

"Well, the hunger is a good sign." The dark-skinned girl said with a nod.

"Where are we anyway?" He asked after a brief silence.

"We're over the ocean at the moment, on our way to the city of Gaoling." She answered, watching as he looked over the edge of Appa's massive saddle before grinning when he saw they were flying over the ocean.

"This is awesome!" The blond exclaimed, his bright eyes widening a moment before his stomach growled when he saw something break the surface of the water. "Anou, where's my weapon pouch?"

"Right here." Sokka said, holding up the durable bag. "What are all those little stary-thingies for anyway?"

"They're called shuriken, mainly people just use them to distract their opponent because of how small they are." The blond answered, pulling a small gray bag out and eating one of the pea-sized brown pill inside.

"What was that?" Katara asked curiously.

"Soldier pill, they contain a special mix of nutrients and enzymes that can help to restore or temporarily boost a person's chakra- supposedly a person can run for three days straight after eating one, but, personally, I don't really buy that." He said with a shrug. "They're not much of a substitute for food, but they can, in theory anyway, sustain a person for several days longer than they would normally last before starving."

"Wow, that's amazing." The young water tribe girl remarked. "I never thought something like that existed, I can't imagine what your world must be like."

"I read on time that about an eighth of our global population is made up of various types of warrior." Naruto said quietly. "Granted this was about six years ago, but there hasn't been anything recently that would be large enough to change that number much, not to my knowledge anyway. Imagine, a world full of soldiers where the greatest source of income comes from conflict and strife."

"Are you serious?" She asked, raising a questioning eyebrow toward him.

"Deadly, why else would there be academies dedicated teaching kids to fight from a young age?" He huffed as he leaned back. "Where I come from, war is part of everyday life. Even times of peace are spent working to make your village and country stronger while making your enemies weaker, if not through outright conflict then through political means."

"How can people live like that?" Sokka asked to breakup the gather silence. "Wars are terrible things, why would anyone want to make more of them?"

"Why else? Personal gain." The blond shinobi stated as he drew his legs up to rest his arms on his knees. "Too many people look out for only themselves instead of giving thought to those around them. Far too often, the most ruthless men and women rise into positions of power over other people and once they have a taste of power, more is never enough. They take what does not belong to them simply because they want it, obviously that causes trouble with the people they took it from. Sooner or later, they'll step over their own limits and step on someone they shouldn't, and that's when all hell breaks loose."

"Wow, that was really, bleak." The brown-haired boy remarked.

"Well, after a while, people get tired of fighting each other and they become more willing to start fixing things." He pointed out with a grin.

"You know, I can't tell if you're a pessimist or an optimist." The eldest of the three boys stated as he gave Naruto a strange look. "It's like you've got a switch or something in your brain that lets you be both."

"Hmm, honestly, at this point, I wouldn't be too surprised if I did." Naruto said amicably as he squinted his eyes while nodding.

"Hey, Naruto, why did you pass out in the swamp when you were saying how you got away from the snake that ate you?" Katara asked him after another silence.

"Heh, I'm not exactly well known back home for knowing my limits," Naruto started with a nervous chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head. "I passed out because I didn't have much chakra left and the Shadow Replication Technique uses a lot of chakra. Sorry if I worried you."

"It's no big deal, though you would have come in handy yesterday." Sokka spoke up, getting a curious look from the blond.

"Why?" He asked. "Did I miss something?"

"We had a little bit of trouble in the town of Chin, nothing we couldn't handle, but it would have been nice to see what you can do in a real fight." The Water Tribe boy pointed out with a small shrug. "Plus it would have been funny to see you versus a komodo rhino."

"Komodo rhino? You guys have the strangest creatures." Naruto sighed as he scratched his arm. "Oh, hey, what happened to my jacket anyway?"

"We've got all your stuff over here." Sokka stated, lowering his knees so Naruto could see his belongings. "I don't really know why you would want it though, I mean, seriously you've got two huge holes burned all the way through it."

"It's not the jacket I'm worried about, it's the crest that's on the shoulder." He remarked before leaning back again.

"Why? It looks kind of old and beat up." He commented.

"It's the only thing I have of my mother besides my name." The ninja answered as he stared at the sky.

"Sorry, I didn't mean..." Sokka started before Naruto held up a hand and grinned at him.

"It's not big deal, I know what my crest looks like, I think it's old and beat up to." He smiled as his hand came to rest on his arm again. "Doesn't mean I don't like it though, it's kind of relaxing to look at."

"You are a strange, crazy little ninja, you know that right?" The young warrior asked, arching a dark brow.

"At least I don't wear green spandex and scream about the 'Flames of Youth' like a couple guy's I know." He smirked in response to the jab.

"What's spandex?" Both of they siblings asked after a quick glance to each other.

"Trust me when I say, you do not want to know." Naruto deflected the question shuddering at the unbidden mental image of both Lee and Gai doing the Nice Guy pose. "Hey, where's Aang anyway, I haven't seen him since before I passed out."

"Up here!" He heard the monk call out to him from Appa's head. "Is this your first time flying Naruto?"

"That depends," Naruto stated as he quickly made his way to the front of the saddle to speak to the bald kid more easily. "Does getting thrown off a cliff count?"

"N-no, I don't think it does." Aang answered with a shake of his head. "Why? Did that happen to you?"

"It was a finger flick actually." He grunted. "Ero-sennin did it to teach me how..."

"How what?" The monk pressed.

"Is there someplace we can land? I can show you if there is." The blond responded.

"Well, it is almost lunchtime, what do you guys think?" Aang called back to his other companions.

"I vote for early lunch!" Sokka exclaimed quickly as he threw up his hand like he was in school

"Sure, lunch sounds good actually." Katara put in, causing Aang to smile as he shifted himself slightly to guide Appa back towards land.

"So, what are you going to do Naruto?" Sokka asked after a few minutes of comfortable silence throughout the group.

"Well, I'm not sure if it'll work, but I'm going to try to do a summoning." He answered, glancing over his shoulder and smiling when he saw that they were quickly approaching the land that had previously been on the distant horizon.

"Summoning? What are you going to summon, a big evil spirit monster?" Sokka asked, getting a small smirk from the boy before looking somewhat worried. "It's not a big evil spirit monster is it?"

"No, nothing like that, just a toad." Naruto stated with a shake of his head. _'One big evil spirit is enough.'_ He thought quietly as he closed his eyes.

"Toad? You mean a skunktoad right?" Aang asked, glancing back at him as he shook his head and said 'no'.

"Or a lizardtoad?" The older boy asked, getting the same response as Aang.

"What about a mongoosetoad?" His sister asked, Naruto sighed as they started to debate what he meant by 'toad'.

"Hey, get ready, we're about to land." Sokka said, shaking Naurto slightly to get his attention as Appa started to slow down. "You should probably hang on to something, the touch downs are a bit jarring."

"Thanks for the warning." The blond said, not bothering to move from his postion as he locked himself into place with his chakra.

"Seriously, you should hold onto someTHING!" The warrior squawked out the last part, gripping the saddle as he was lifted off of it as the giant bison dropped the last few inches with a heavy thud. "Hey, how come you didn't get lifted out of the saddle?"

"I used chakra to hold myself in place." He answered, flipping to his feet to look around. "Hmm, it's more open that the forests back home." The blond commented as he looked around at the pine forest they had landed in. "Say, I could go for some fish, who else wants some?"

"Fish sounds great." Katara responded, watching Naruto set his hands in a familiar position. "Hey, are you sure you should try that so soon." She watched as another pair of Narutos appeared at his side.

"I'm fine, I only passed out last time because I was almost completely out of chakra." He remarked as one of his copies grabbed a couple kunai and a roll of wire from his pouch before both disappeared in streaks of blue and orange aimed for the shore. "Normally I can make hundreds of clones without a problem."

"Really, how much of this 'chakra' stuff do you have?" She asked.

"Heh, I was called a stamina freak for good reason." He grinned before jumping down from Appa and landing on his feet. "Feels good to move around again."

"So, Naruto, what did you mean by 'toad' anyway?" Sokka finally asked as the three started to pull their possessions off of Appa.

"I'll show you." The blond stated as he began molding chakra before biting through the pad of his thumb with one of his pronounced canines to draw blood.

"What are you doing?" Aang voiced the question they all were wondering as the trio gathered around Naruto.

"This." He answered, quickly slapping his hands together in the proper seals before slamming it into the ground and releasing his chakra.

The three watched with curious anticipation in their eyes as his palm struck the ground, holding their breath as a web-like pattern of illegible black script spread out where he touched the earth. A cloud of smoke blocked their vision for a moment as Naruto drew his hand back, looking on with as much anticipation as his newest friends as he waited for the smoky haze to dissipate. A dark cloud fell over Naruto and the other three almost face planted when they saw a small polliwog where his hand had been.::

"That's it?" Sokka asked, being the first of the group to recover enough to speak. "I was expecting something, oh I don't know, bigger maybe."

"Yeah, so was I." Naruto agreed, his nose twitching slightly when he caught the faint smell of blood and fish. "Well, the food is here, I'll go get some firewood and try again after lunch." As he spoke, he walked off into the forest."

"Wow, he looked kind of disappointed." Aang remarked as the sole returning clone passed a man-sized shark off to Sokka before dispersing itself.

"Hey! A little help here!" Sokka demanded as he hugged the large shark to his body while trying to keep upright.

"He caught a shark." Katara stated, looking shocked and mildly disturbed at the revelation as she grabbed the tail to help her sibling.

"Okay." Naruto said, drawing out the word numbly as soon as he saw his clone's catch before looking down at the small pile of twigs in his arms. "I think we're going to need some more wood."

"I'll help you." The Water Tribe maiden offered, dropping her end of the dead shark and trotting after him as he walked back into the woods.

"Katara!" Sokka cried out as the sudden increase of weight and momentum took him off his feet.

"Hey, Naruto, wait up!" Katara called out after the blond, getting him to pause long enough for her to reach him .

"Do you need something Katara?" He asked, looking over at her.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you." She said, keeping pace with him as he began walking again.

"Really? About what?" The blond asked, sticking his hands into his pockets lazily.

"I wanted to apologize for the way I acted in the swamp." She said slowly, grasping her hands together slightly. "I should have listened to what you were saying and I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." He said with a smile. "I didn't really help matters much with the 'assassin' comment, so I'm sorry too."

"Well, that was faster than I thought it would be." She commented, looking over at him again. "I kind of expected you to lord it over me like Sokka would have."

"Meh, I'm not much one for holding a grudge." He stated with a shrug.

"I'm glad to hear that." Katara said with a smile of her own. "Though I'm curious, why do you have all those scars?"

"You do realize you've left yourself open for a smart-ass answer with that question don't you?" Naruto asked in return as his smile changed to a smirk.

"You're avoiding the question." She stated firmly.

"Yeah, I know." He retorted as he came to a stop, creating nearly a dozen copies of himself that scattered into the woods without a word.

"Why?" She pressed him, taking a step closer.

"Because I don't want to answer it." He answered obviously. "We all have our secrets Katara, maybe someday I'll tell you mine."

"I... can respect that." She nodded after a small pause. "So, how did you manage to catch a shark anyway?"

"I'm not really sure, it was my clones that caught it- not me." He stated with a shrug. "Say, what did Aang mean when he called me an Earthbender anyway? I've never heard of such a thing."

"Wow, that's probably the easiest question in the world and the hardest to answer." Katara said with a small, oddly cute scowl as she took a seat. "I mean, honestly it's something people never really think about. Everyone knows what the bending arts are."

"Not me." The blond said pointedly as he dropped to the ground with far less grace. "I'm pretty new to the world after all."

"Alright, I guess I should start with the basics then." She said with a nod. "In our world, there are four separate nations, the Water Tribes, where Sokka and I are from. The Air Nomads, where Aang comes from. The Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation, where I accused you of being from. The reason for the division is because in our world, there are people called benders who can manipulate the four elements." She explained, looking up to him and watching as he nodded before continuing. "Each nation is named for the element they bend. There's only one person who can control all for elements, and he or she is called the Avatar. Every time the Avatar dies, a new avatar is born into the next nation in the cycle, water, then earth, then fire and air before finally returning to water."

"So, I'm guessing Aang is this Avatar then?" He interrupted questioningly.

"Yes, he is, but how did you know?" She asked in return.

"Not hard to figure out, you said that the Fire Nation wiped out the Air Nomads, but you also said that Aang is one of them." He said slowly. "Plus I needed some kind of, anchor point, I guess you could say, to bring myself to this world after I was injured- and while technically it could have been anything alive, it had to be something powerful enough to draw my chakra to it so I could latch on."

"So, you used Aang." She said, causing him to nod slightly. "But I thought you didn't know how you got here."

"It has something to do with my secret." He said after a moment. "Please don't ask me to say more."

"Alright, I won't." She agreed with a small nod. "Anyway, back to what I was saying."

~*~*~

"Finally! Where the heck have you two been?" Sokka demanded as Katara and Naruto walked back into camp together. "We've been waiting for almost two hours!"

"Sorry Sokka, it's my fault." Naruto spoke up first. "I kind of bugged her into giving me a brief history lesson."

"You call two hours brief?" The older boy asked, his eye twitching slightly.

"Considering it covered the pretty much the last hundred years, yeah, I call two hours brief." He confirmed, noticing the large pile of wood his clones had brought back to camp. "Hmm, maybe I went overboard with the firewood."

"Yeah, just a little." Katara remarked with a small chuckle. "So, is the shark ready Sokka?"

"Yep, there's enough meat here to last for a couple days." Her brother confirmed with a nod before looking to Naruto. "How did you catch a shark anyway?"

"Dunno, my clones caught it, not me." He answered with a shrug.

"Point taken." Sokka said amicably before holding two plates of shark meat, some strange red nuts and purple berries out for them to take. "Well, eat up before it gets too much colder."

"Thanks." Naruto said before eating clearing the plate with enough speed to make the others stare at him. "What?" He asked innocently when he noticed.

"Are you even chewing?" Sokka asked after a moment of awkwardness.

"Heh, sorry, this is the first _real_ food I've had in a few days- soldier pills will give you energy, but they are far from filling." He said with a nervous chuckle, lower himself to the ground and continuing to eat at a more sedated pace.

"I imagine something that small wouldn't be." The Water Tribe boy said with a nod. "So, you two seem to be getting along pretty well now."

"Yeah, well, you know- life's too short to hold grudges." The blond said with a shrug after he finished his food, setting the plate down on the ground before standing up and taking a couple steps away from the group.

"Is something wrong?" Aang asked as Naruto pressed his hands together so that only his index and middle fingers were erected.

"Nope, I'm just going to try to something a bit bigger, and it looks like it'll take more power to summon anything useful." He answered, getting nods all around.

The Avatar and his friends watched on in a quiet group as Naruto stood perfectly still, holding his eyes loosely closed as he began to gather his body's energy. His lips tugged slightly at the sides as he resist the urge to smirk at the shocked gasps he hears as his power began to make the air around him ripple slightly. In a motion the trio could barely follow Naruto brought his thumb up to his mouth and nipped it with his feral teeth to draw out the blood he needed before he went through the three familiar hand signs and releasing his chakra through his palm as it raced toward the ground. An audible popping sound rang through the small clearing as the blond drew his hand out of the alabaster vapors that had formed.::

"Hey, give me a treat if..." An orange toad about the size of a man's head in a blue vest started to say as the smoke cleared, stopping when he saw the smiling blue eyed blond in front of him. "Naruto!"

"Hey Kichi, long time no see." Naruto said with a small smirk.

"I thought you were dead! Everyone thought you were dead! Dad and Jiraiya both broke down crying when the pervert delivered the news" Gamakishi exlaimed, tackling the boy as best something his size could. "Where the hell have you been?!"

"Sorry, it's a bit of a long story." He apologized, glancing towards the now speechless group on the other side of the campfire. "Anyway, I'd like to introduce you to my newest friends."

"Eh? Who are they?" The toad asked, turning around to see the bald kid and the two dark haired teens beside him as all three stared at him with eyes the size of dinner plates.

"Gamakichi, meet Aang, Katara, and Sokka." Naruto said, pointing to each respectively for the summoned toad. "Guys, I'd like you to meet Gamakichi."

"What's up, got any sweets?" Gamakichi asked as he lifted his one of his front feet to wave at them.

"That frog just talked!" Sokka finally managed to exclaim as the shock settled.

"Oi! That's insulting!" The small amphibian huffed, crossing his arms over his chest in an annoyed fashion. "I'm a toad, not a frog."

"Frog, toad, same difference, you've all got brains the size of peas anyway." The brown haired boy said and Naruto's eyes widened slightly.

"Sokka, you really shouldn't..." Naruto started to speak.

"Oi now! No need to get jealous because my brain is bigger than yours!" The young toad cut him off.

"Nevermind." The blond sighed, walking over to Aang and Katara and the toad and warrior got in each others faces.

"What was that you orange freak of nature?" Sokka demanded.

"What, are you deaf and stupid too?!" Gamakichi shot back, the three onlookers could swear they saw a small arch of lightning pass between their eyes as the insult war began.

"Do you think we should do something?" Aang asked, glancing at the other two.

"Probably," Katara said with a nod. "I can't believe my brother is losing to a frog."

"Toad." Naruto corrected before walking over to the verbal combatants and lifting them both off the ground by the necks of their blue clothing. "Alright you two, that's enough."

"But he..." Both Sokka and Gamakichi started to protest before his eyes narrowed in a deadly glare. "Sorry."

"Don't tell me." The blond said in a warning tone.

"I'm... Sorry I called you a frog and said you had a brain the size of a pea." Sokka said first under a moment of Naruto's pseudo-parental gaze.

"I'm sorry I insulted your hairstyle." Gamakichi said, earning a glare from both humans before he reluctantly added. "And that I said your brain was smaller than a pea."

"Good, I'm glad to see you two getting long." Naruto grinned, releasing both so they dropped to the ground while idly wondering why the taller boy didn't just lower his legs when he was first picked up.

"Wow, I thought only Gran Gran could do that." Katara chuckled at the sight of her brother being put in line by the shorter blond with only a look. "Maybe we should send you up against the Fire Lord instead."

"You mean like this?" Naruto asked, performing a few hand seals before he was engulfed in white smoke and turned into a stern-looking old woman and spoke with a voice to match. "Young man, you end this war right now!" 'She' said to an imaginary Fire Lord Ozai, shaking a wrinkled finger menacingly. "I don't care who started it, I told you to end it! Right now mister! Don't you grumble at me, do I have to get my spoon?!"

"That... was... great!" Aang managed to get out between fits laughter so hard they made him cry.

"How the heck did you do that?!" Sokka asked, appearing at Naruto's side as he released the transformation.

"Just an academy level transformation, it's not that impressive." The blond answered with a shrug.

"Oi, Naruto, not that I'm not happy to see you and all, but why did you summon me?" Gamakichi asked, interrupting the brunet before he could press for details.

"Oh, right." He mumbled, returning to the toad. "I actually summoned you to see if I still could. I wasn't really sure if I could after my fight with the bastard, he really did a number on me. I'm not sure on specifics, but the furball did something after the second chidori was put through my chest, I was so close to death I didn't even have a chance at resisting him."

"Do they know?" The young toad asked, glancing at Naruto's new friends.

"Not yet, but I'll tell them- just not now." He answered, not needing to look behind him to know that all eyes were on his back. "He's not exactly the best thing to drop on people."

"Wait, what are you talking about. Who is this 'He' guy?" Sokka demanded to know.

"Sokka, I've already asked him." Katara said softly, setting her hand on her brother's shoulder. "Naruto will tell us when he's ready."

"You know nee-chan, I think I like you- even if you are traveling with the idiot over there." Gamakichi said with what passed for a grin among toads.

"Hey!" Sokka protested.

"Kichi, be nice, Sokka's not that bad." Naruto said, flicking the toad lightly on the forehead.

"Oi, since you've got me here, do you want me to deliver a message to Jiraiya for you or something?" The toad asked after rubbing the stinging point with one of his hand-like forefeet.

"Actually, that's a great idea, tell him that I'm alive and doing pretty well all things considered- hmm, ask him if he could send me a couple training scrolls next time too." The blond said, resting his chin on his clasped hands. "A few changes of clothes wouldn't hurt any either."

"Uh, Naruto, how are any of us supposed to get this stuff to you?" Gamakichi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, right, uh, I'll summon you again in three days, do you think that will be enough time?" Naruto asked, tilting his head off to one side.

"Better make it four days, just for safety, the pervert'll probably want to send you a letter with the care-package." He responded with a nod.

"Yeah, make sure he tells Baa-chan I say 'Hi'." He said with a nod of his own. "And see if you can find out how the rest of the retrieval team is doing, we were fighting some pretty tough guys."

"Any other messages, what about Pinky?" The amphibian pressed, noticing Naruto's head lower visibly at the mention of Sakura.

"N-no, for right now, just Tsunade and Jiraiya, maybe Boss too." He said after a long silence filled with racing thoughts. "At the moment, fewer people who know I'm alive is probably better. I have no idea where I am now Kichi, I may never be able to get home again. It's probably only luck that I'm still able to summon toads, it took nearly ten times the usual chakra just to summon you."

"Guess that means bringing pops here for a visit is out of the question." The toad joked, only getting a half-hearted laugh in response. "I'm off then."

"Later Gamakichi." He said a moment before the orange toad disappeared, standing up and turning around with a smile on his face. "Well, that was fun."

"It was definitely different." Aang said with a nod. "Can all animals talk where you come from?"

"No, it's mostly just the summons that can, though some ninken can learn." The blond answered, getting raised eyebrows. "Dogs, trained to work alongside ninja."

"You come from a very strange place crazy ninja guy." Sokka said with a shake of his head, resisting the urge to ask exactly what the blond meant by 'dog'.

"I'm not crazy." Naruto stated firmly. "I'm just highly eccentric."

"Right, what did Gamakichi mean about you not being able to bring his dad here?" Aang asked.

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain," Naruto started simply. "Hell, I don't even understand most of it to be completely honest. The basics of it however come down to a simple concept of sacrifice to bring the desired object to you. It requires a small amount of blood or some kind of marker to designate where you want the summoning to arrive, and a certain amount of chakra based on the size and-or power of whatever it is you're trying to bring to you. Normally distance isn't a problem because it's a space-time technique, but I'm so far away from home that distance seems to have become a factor in what's required."

"So, it takes more of this 'chakra' stuff that you normally use?" Sokka asked, getting a confirming nod. "So, how's that stopping you from summoning Gamakichi's dad?"

"Gamabunta..." Naruto's breath caught for a moment. "Well, Oyabun is about thirty stories tall, he's the most powerful toad I've ever been able to summon."

"Th-thirty... Stories?" Sokka repeated, looking upward as he pictured exactly how tall that would be- paling sligntly as the blood drained from his face.

"Yeah, it takes a lot out of me to summon him just from Myobokuzan to Konoha- I'd kill myself just by trying to summon him if Gamakichi was anything to go by." He said with a nod.

"What did he mean when he called me 'nee-chan' anyway?" Katara asked.

"Nee-chan is just an honorific, it basically means 'big sister'." He answered, noticing Aang had a serious look. "Something wrong Aang?"

"I'm just wondering, if you can summon the toads, why can't they summon you?" The hairless monk asked, scratching his arrow.

"Normally they can." Naruto answered slowly. "But I don't think they'll be able to this time."

"Why not?" He asked.

"I told you that the amount of chakra it takes to summon something depends on the size and power of it, how it normally takes an equal amount of chakra," The blond got nods to this. "I also said it's taking about ten-times the usual chakra to summon anything." Nods again. "There-in lies the problem."

"What do you mean?" Sokka asked, looking him over carefully. "You don't look all that powerful to me."

"In terms of raw power potential, I have been at Kage level since I was young- which is why I've had so much trouble with my chakra control while I was learning." Naruto said, getting curious looks. "And seeing as I haven't told you too much about my world, I guess I have to explain. Alright, there are a few different ranks for shinobi. Academy students are shinobi-in-training, and they're considered the weakest of the grouping simply because their age limits their power. Next up are Genin, like myself, genin basically means 'lower ninja', depending on how long and hard they've been working with their jounin instructors, they can be just as weak as academy students to just as strong as full-blown chunin, with some exceptions of course. Following up the Genin, the next highest level is Chunin, or 'middle ninja', they are generally more experienced and powerful than genin are and they are usually chosen to lead some of the higher difficulty missions. Jounins or 'upper ninja' are the highest ranking of subordinate ninja, they are usually chosen to train teams of genin and lead the highest difficulty missions- though many of them prefer working alone. At the top of this little hierarchy is the Kage, or Shadow. There are only five Kages in total, the Hokage or 'Fire Shadow', the Kazekage or 'Wind Shadow', the Raikage or 'Lightning Shadow', the Tsuchikage or 'Earth Shadow' and finally the Mizukage or 'Water Shadow'. Each of the Kages is the head of one of the five main villages, and they are without a doubt the single most powerful shinobi of that village."

"Wait, when you first woke up, you said that you're the future Hokage." Katara pointed out slowly.

"Yeah, that was my dream, to be the greatest Hokage ever." He said with a sad smile. "I've always had the raw-power for the job, but I need to get some experience under my belt before I can take the hat from Baa-chan."

"Baa-chan?" Aang said in a questioning tone.

"Right, I guess I should give her full title. The Godaime Hokage Tsunade-sama of the Legendary Sannin, but I call her 'Baa-chan' because she's old and it annoys her." He said with a grin. "If I was anyone else, she would hit me for it."

"That doesn't sound all that bad you know." Sokka pointed out.

"She's a world renowned medic where I come from, and she's also a famous gambler- mainly because she's the worst gambler in history, which is how I got that necklace of mine." He said, pausing to chuckle at the memory. "But the thing she is most famous for is her strength."

"Okay." The ever-sarcastic pessimist said at length.

"I fought her once, after she insulted all of the previous Hokages, all she used against me was one finger." He said, holding up his own index finger. "Being impulsive as I am, I naturally charged right at her because I thought she couldn't do anything with one finger and I was pissed at her for not taking me seriously."

"And then what happened?" The tattooed Airbender asked.

"She flicked me." He paused, leaning it to flick Aang in the forehead lightly. "Just like that."

"And?" He pressed.

"I got knocked ten meters back, lost my headband and the weapon I had in my hand." He said plainly, watching everyone's eyes widen. "And she also took the time to steal my wallet while she was at it."

"Jeez, are all of you ninjas freaks?" Sokka asked, getting hit in the arm by his sister.

"No, just a good majority of us." He corrected with a small shake os his head. "Normal for us is abnormal."

*~*~*

A small red notebook lay abandoned on the ground among the empty sake bottles surrounding a white haired man as he rested against a tree. His dark eyes momentarily settled on the tiny figures playing in the hot springs below before he lost interest in them, opting instead to fall back into his depressive state. Jiraiya let out a heavy sigh as he fiddled with his brass telescope unconsciously, he just hadn't been able to find any of the enjoyment he had previously gotten from peeping on the girls since the death of his most recent pupil- a wound made worse when no one had been able to find his body. A loud pop nearly made the old pervert jump out of his skin before he turned to see the kill-me-orange toad named Gamakichi sitting beside him.::

"Yo! Pervert, I've got a message for you!" The young toad announced, hopping closer to the long-haired man.

"What does your father want?" The somewhat drunk sage mumbled as he eyed the amphibian.

"Nah, it's not pops who sent me- give us some cover before I deliver the message, it's pretty important." Gamakichi said, getting a curious look from the middle-aged human. "I'm serious you old pervert, I'm not telling you anything until we're the only two who can hear it."

"Fine." Jiraiya sighed, biting his thumb and performing the proper hand seals for the Toad Mouth Bind. "Happy now?" He asked when they were completely surrounded by the thick pinkish-red walls.

"Yep." He said with what passed for a toothy grin. "Guess who I just had a talk with."

"Gamakichi." The old sage warned menacingly.

"Sorry, jeez, you're no fun." The orange toad sighed as he shook his head. "Anyway, I just came by to deliver a message from Naruto."

"That's not funny." Jiraiya stated bitterly.

"I'm not joking, Naruto is alive." Gamakichi said firmly. "He wanted you to know he's alive and well, and he also wanted me to ask you to send some training scrolls and clothes. He also wanted to say 'Hi' to the Old Hag and find how the rest of the team sent after Sasuke was doing- he looked kind of worried when he asked."

"H-he's alive?" The Sannin asked, swallowing slightly before breaking out into a wide rrin when the toad nodded again. "He's alive!"

"Yeah, but he didn't want it spread around." The toad responded, getting another curious look. "Naruto is pretty sure he's stuck wherever he is, said it took ten times the usual chakra to summon me."

"Where is he?" Jiraiya asked slowly.

"I dunno, he was in the middle of a weird looking forest when he summoned me, all the trees had needles instead of leaves." He answered with a small shrug. "He's traveling with three other kids too."

"Three kids?" He repeated slowly.

"Yeah, a short bald one with some blue tattoos on his head and arms, a cute girl with dark skin and brown hair and an older boy with dark skin and a Mohawk-ponytail kind of hairstyle." The toad answered, describing Naruto's newest companions. "Oh, and they had this six-legged white bison sort of thing with them and a little monkey with wings and huge ears."

"Have you been eating strange mushrooms again?" Jiraiya asked after a moment of awkward silence.

"No! I told you that I didn't know what they were!" Gamakichi shouted defensively.

"Never mind." Jiraiya said as he rubbed his forehead. "So, Naruto is alive huh? Should have known he'd be too stupid to just die."

~*~*~

"Are you sure you don't have a cold?" Sokka asked after Naruto sneezed again.

"Yeah, I honestly don't get sick Sokka." The blond said, sniffing loudly.

"The sneezing says otherwise." The warrior voiced his opinion.

* * *

**A/N: Well, that's it for this chapter, thanks to everyone who reviewed. I am actually considering a relationship between Naruto and Toph, and I have considered it since I started simpley because of how I think they'd interact. And for those wondering. Yes, Naruto is both smarter and stronger than he is in cannon, though I hope not ridiculously so. Also, to Shinen no Hikari, I really do like Part 2 Naruto better as well, but he just didn't fit in with the story- I mean honestly, he would just cut through half of the Fire Nation alone in Sage Mode. He's about as smart in this story as he is in part two, at least I hope he is, if not, the intelligence is close. Also, he does know a few more jutsu in this story- I thought Katara getting buried up to her neck like Sasuke was amusing which is why I'm saying Kakshi taught him the Inner Decapitation technique in this. That's about if for now, thanks to Yuya, Vash3055, Kai Dragoon Shinen no Hikari jingo4754 and K,T,M for the reviews. So, sorry for the delays, and I hope you enjoy the update. Later, 24CC. **

**Next Chapter: Shock and Outrage! The letter from home.**


	3. Chapter 3 sorry about this one folks

**A/N Bleh, I didn't really like this chapter- for those familiar with the episode Blind Bandit and don't want to read a re-hashed version, skip down to the note at the end.**

* * *

=3=

"Hey, Naruto, are you almost done in there?" Katara asked as she knocked on the stone barrier between changing rooms.

"I'm not coming out, I feel ridiculous." Naruto said stubbornly from behind curtain.

"Oh, just come out." She ordered. "It can't be that bad."

"Says you." He huffed before the curtain opened and the blond stepped out, wearing a pair of light brown, tied bottom trousers and a slightly darker sleeveless shirt common to the Earth Kingdom. "Where the hell am I supposed to hide my weapons in this?"

"I'm sure you'll manage something." She remarked somewhat sourly as she looked him over. "Something is off, but I can't quiet put my finger on it."

"I can!" Sokka piped up, walking over and setting an hand in Naruto's shaggy golden hair. "We've been all over the world, and I can honestly say- nobody is this blond."

"You're right, Naruto, we're going to need to dye your hair if you want to blend in." Katara agreed with a sharp nod.

"You do remember that I was wearing Kill-Me-Now orange when we first me, right?" Naruto asked, arching a sun-kissed brow curiously at her. "Blending in was never really something I cared too much about."

"I like his hair, it's just so cheery to look at." Aang spoke up, Momo nodded on his shoulders and chattered slightly.

"Yeah, I'm with the Avatar on this one." The blond proclaimed, moving to Aang's side. "I like my hair just the way it is."

"You're making yourself a target dumbass, blond hair is too rare here- you'll be too easily remembered." The Kyuubi spoke in his head, Naruto sighed and hung his head.

"What's wrong?" Aang asked.

"Bah, it's three to two, I have to change my hair color." Naruto grumbled before straightening up. "Well, lets just get these clothes paid for and I'll change it later."

"Right, you do know you're not supposed to make so much sense when you sound crazy- right?" Sokka asked as Katara went to pay for the clothes. "Seriously, where to you get three to two, there are only four of us- unless you're counting Momo."

"Yes Sokka, the flying lemur told me to change my hair color." The wayward ninja deadpanned.

"AH- wait, you're making fun of me aren't you?" Sokka asked bitterly.

"Yep, you make it too easy." He said, baring his fang-like canines with his grin.

"Come on you two, let's go." Katara said, motioning for them to follow.

"Yeah yeah, we're coming." Her brother sighed as they followed.

"You guys go ahead without me, I'll catch up to you in a few minutes." Naruto said as they walked down the earthen street, slipping down one of the alleys and disappearing.

"What was that about?" Sokka asked quietly after the blond was gone, pausing when something caught his eye.

"How should I know?" Katara shrugged, looking back when she got now response to see that her brother was no longer behind her and was instead standing in a shop looking at a well-made green and gold bag- she let out a sigh before walking over to her brother. "What's going on?" She asked as he inspected the bag.

"Well, I'm thinking about buying this bag." He stated obviously, rubbing his chin contemplatively as Aang dropped took a seat on the ground- knowing that they would probably be there for a while.

"Well, an extra bag might come in handy." She said amicably.

"Yes, it would." He agreed with a nod. "But it is pretty expensive.

"How much have I missed?" Naruto asked quietly as he took a seat by Aang.

"Not much, Sokka is shopping again." The monk sighed, shaking his head as he kept his eyes closed.

"It's pricey, but I really do like it." Sokka stated after a quiet moment.

"Then you should get it." Katara said, trying to be reasonable with her brother. "You deserve something nice.

"I do, don't I?" He asked cheerfully before shifting slightly and frowning. "But, no. It's too expensive, I shouldn't."

"Alright, then don't." She sighed, walking away with Aang and Naruto following her and Momo chittering on her shoulder.

Sokka sighed and followed momentarily before zipping back to the store and smiling happily. "You know what, I'm going to get it."

"Psst. Hey, you kids like Earthbending?" A somewhat shabby man asked, putting his arm around Aang and drawing him closer as he held up some flyers. "You like throwing rocks? Then check out Master Yu's Earthbending academy." He grinned and handed the young monk a flyer before walking away.

"Look, there's a coupon on the back, the first lesson is free!" Aand said excitedly as he turned the flyer over to reveal the smiling likeness of the fox-faced man who was presumably Master Yu.

"Who knows, this Master Yu could be the Earthbending teacher you've been looking for." Katara put in as Sokka came back over, clutching his new bag to his chest.

"Sounds like a gimmick to me, but who am I to judge?" Naruto spoke up, getting a strange look from Sokka. "What?"

"Who _are_ you?" The water tribe boy.

"I was blond five minutes ago." He stated, pushing a handful of long black hair back to show his bright blue eyes. "I figured I may as well change my hair completely while I was at it."

"Naruto? But how did..." Sokka paused for a moment before nodding knowingly. "Right, the transformation thing, I had almost forgotten about that."

"Different technique, similar result." He nodded. "Only this isn't an illusion and won't get dispelled if I'm hit too hard."

"You have really got to teach me how to do this stuff." Sokka said as they started again. "So, where are we going?"

"Master Yu's Earthbending academy." Katara answered as she and Aang led the way.

"Nice hair." The Water Tribe boy remarked as the and Naruto walked along together. "I think I liked you as a blond better though, you were easier to recognize."

"That's why I had to change it." Naruto said with a small smirk. "I liked it better blond too, it made me feel special."

~*~*~

Sokka, Katara and Naruto watched quietly as Aang stood in a line with three younger children wearing the uniform standard of Master Yu's academy students while a bored look plied across his face. The once blond shinobi scratched the back of his head and sighed while the monk dug into one of his ears with his little finger, before glancing to the other students on his side of the courtyard and straightening up when he noticed they were standing at attention. Three sets of blue eyes settled on the students across from the young Avatar before one pair shifted down to the rocks at their feet, the fox container had the distinct feeling this would not end well for his bald friend.::

"Take your stances." The long bearded master you ordered as he strode between his pupils, shifting his eyes slightly as all the children save for Aang slid into a firm stance, stopping and turning around after he passed the last student. "Now, strike as if you're punching through your opponents head!" He exclaimed with a dramatic expression as he fell into a similar stance to his students and punched out.

Aangs eyes widened drastically as realization of why only half the gathered students had stones in front of them, Sokka and Katara shared a worried look as the student opposing Aang drove his foot to the ground and the rock took to the air. Naruto winced slightly when the stone connected with his friends chest, sending him flying back into a large urn fill with sand. The shinobi sighed and shook his head when Master Yu walked over to the buried monk and smiled down at him.

"So, are you ready to commit to more lessons?" The lanky man asked cheerfully. "If you pay for the whole year in advance I'll bump you up to the next belt!"

"That, hurt to watch." Naruto remarked as he walked over, pulling the downed monk out of the dirt by the front of his shirt as Sokka nodded in agreement. "You okay Aang?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He nodded, brushing himself off as he followed his compatriots out of the academy and knocking sand out of his ears. "I don't think he's the one though."

"I think the boulder is going to win back the belt at Earth Rumble Six." One of Master Yu's students said as he passed through the entrance with his friend.

"He's going to have to fight his way though the best Earthbenders in the world to even get a shot at the Champ." His friend pointed out, getting a grin from Aang when he overheard.

"Excuse me, but where is this Earthbending tournament exactly?" Aang asked, moving quickly to catch the two.

"It's on the island of Nunya." The boy with the topknot said as he turned, smirking as he finished. "Nunyabusiness!" He and his friend both laughed before walking off.

"Oh, I've gotta remember that one." Sokka laughed as het and the others walked up to join Aang.

"I'll take care of this." Katara said softly to the bald boy as she set her hands on his shoulders before following the two Earthbenders down the street. "Hey strong-guys, wait up!"

"I've got to see this." Naruto smirk, disappearing in a flicker to follow Katara before both Sokka and Aand shared a questioning look and shrugged

"What was I thinking, I don't need a new bag! Why'd you let me by this?" Sokka questiong as he looked at his new bag before setting it on the ground and turning away bitterly, Momo chattered excitedly before jumping down from his shoulder and claiming the bag for his new bed.

"You ready to find an Earthbending teacher?" Katara asked as she ran back over followed by a snickering disguised Naruto. "Because we're going to Earth Rumble Six!"

"How'd you get them to tell you?" Aang asked, glancing between his two friends as Naruto gave a toothy smirk.

"Oh, a girl has her ways." She answered innocently as Naruto chortled again.

"What'd she do?' Sokka asked, glancing to the young shinobi.

"She used the charms all strong women posses to gently persuade the information she wanted out of them." He snickered, glancing back to the side street were both boys had been encased in ice and frozen to the opposing walls so their heads were shoved together uncomfortable.

"Whatever." Sokka sighed before turning around.

"Charms all strong women posses?" Katara repeated in a questioning tone, glancing over to the former-blond as they followed behind Aang, Sokka and Momo.

"Baa-chan would have put them through the walls." He pointed out with an innocent shrug. "Ino-chan and Sakura-chan probably would have broken at least a couple bones."

"The women of your world sound terrifying." She muttered.

"They can be, I think Hinata-chan would probably be the scariest of all if she had a bit more confidence." He stated, getting a questioning look from his feminine companion. "Her family has a style of fighting called Jyuuken, it can be used to completely cut off a person's chakra and paralyze them with just a few light taps. It is scary as hell to be on the receiving end of."

"Sounds like she's related to Ty Lee." Katara said while repressing a slight shudder. "She just tapped my arms a couple times with her knuckles and completely blocked off my chi so I couldn't bend at all for a couple hours after. I've never felt so helpless."

"If this Ty Lee has pure white eyes, they probably are related." He said with a a humorless smirk.

*~*~*

Naruto sighed as they walked toward a small mountain on the outskirts of Goalin after sundown, he had spent several hours finding creative places to store his weapons inside his new clothing without it being too obvious that he was arms- silently he cursed letting himself be talked into getting _sleeveless_ shirts, the abominations were part of what had forced him to be so creative so he could still have fast access to his hidden weapons. When the others questioned him about being so heavily armed he remarked that it was always best to be heavily armed because 'you never know what will happen'. As they entered the stony arena, the fox-boy sighed and wondered if he had somehow dropped into an Iwa convention as he looked around, the only thing that seemed out of place for the notion were the massive stone circles with the small central squares that reminded him of the coins Katara said was their world's currency.::

"Hey, front row seats!" Aang exclaimed as they made there way along the stone benches, Naruto grunted and sat down on the far right side. "I wonder why no one else is sitting here." Everyone flinched when a giant boulder landed where Naruto had been sitting.

"I guess that answers that question." Naruto swallowed, looking down at the others from his newest perch. "I have to say, that was an uncomfortably close call."

"If I didn't know you so well already, I would probably be sputtering like an idiot about how that should have crushed you." Sokka remarked as he looked up at the ninja.

"What can I say, I'm special." He retorted with a foxish grin as a burly man rose out of the ring on a pillar of rock.

"Welcome to Earth Rumble Six!" The man declared loudly as the rock beneath him sank back into the ring. "I am your host, Xin Fu!"

"This is just going to be a bunch of guys chucking rocks at each other isn't it?" Katara asked with a bored sigh as she examined her nails.

"That's what I paid for." Sokka stated with a large, happy and all around self-satisfied grin on his face.

"I just hope there are no more close calls, I like this spot." Naruto stated as he watched the raised platform with intrest.

"The rules are simple, just knock the other guy out of the ring and you win!" Xin Fu anounce to the cheering crowd before leaping onto the high platform beside naruto's boulder-seat as an even burlier man with a massive tattoo on his back entered the ring. "Round one! The Boulder versus the Big Bad HIPPO!"

"I wonder if he's related to Choji." Naruto quipped upon seeing the massive man on the opposing side of the stage.

"Listen up Hippo, you may be big, but you ain't bad!" The smaller man announced dramatically before grinning insanely. "The Boulder's going to win this in a landslide!"

"Hippo mad!" The larger competitor bellowed as be brought his food down hard enough to crack the floor beneath him, bracing himself as the Boulder launched several large rocks at him with a powerful thrust of his upper body- Naruto blinked in surprise when the massive man chewed through one of the smaller rocks and spit it out before he started jumping around and shaking the semi-isolated platform.

"Unbelievable ladies and gentlemen! The Hippo is rocking the Boulder!" Xin Fu cried out form his secluded perch as The Boulder struggled to maintain his footing on the rocking platform.

The dark skinned man stumbled to the edge of the stone rising and started to fall off before a slab of rock shot out so he could catch and balance himself before he tore it free and threw it at his distracted opponent who was urging the cheering crowd. Naruto watched in curious silence as the large stone sheet hit the Hippo in the back and broke apart, effectively pulling his attention back to the Boulder as he jumped away from the edge of the ring. He felt his jaw slacken slightly when a boulder rose from the ground with the man calling himself the Hippo was standing as the smaller man seemed to struggle with a simple martial form before he shoved his arms forward and sent his competitor crashing out of the ring.::

"The Boulder wins!" The announcer declared to the cheering crowd as the Boulder egged them on.

"So that was Earthbending." Naruto muttered to himself.

"How about the boulder? He's got some good moves." Katara pointed out quietly to the tattooed boy.

"I don't know." He responded hesitantly. "Bumi said I need to find a teacher who listens to the earth, he's just listening to his big muscles. What do you two think?" He asked, looking off to the side to see Sokka cheering wildly.

"That was impressive, but I'm not sure if I could take you seriously if you started talking in the Third person Baldy." Naruto remarked from atop his perch.

"Next match! The boulder versus Fire Nation Man!" Xin Fu bellowed as a hefty man in red trousers and burnt orange boots came marching across a bridge of earth waving a Fire Nation flag much to the displeasure of the crowd.

"Boo! Boo!" Sokka cried out with the rest of the crowd.

"Why did we bring him?" Naruto asked as he looked at the other two who just kind of shrugged.

"Please to rise for Fire Nation national anthem." The man ordered in a forced accent before starting to sing off key. "Fire Lord! My flame burns for thee!"

"Go back to the Fire Nation!" Sokka shouted over the boos, throwing a rock and nailing the now kneeling man in the head.

Naruto sighed and shook his head, flicking a pebble at the boy as Fire Nation Man was sunk into the earth by the Boulder before the muscular man raised a large pillar of earth out of the floor.

"No! No, please!" The chubby man begged as the Boulder grinned down at him before jumping off his column and grabbing his ankles so that he hit the stage knees first- launching the man off the platform right at the rock where Naruto was sitting as Sokka howled wildly with pleasure.

"The Boulder knows how to put the hurt in the dirt!" Sokka screamed ecstatically at the Fire Nation Man as he laid face down in the remains of the boulder.

"If anyone asks, I don't know him." Naruto said bitterly from Katara's side, causing her too look over. "This sucks, I really liked that spot."

"You know, most people would probably be worried about nearly being crushed twice in one day." Katara pointed out softly as a badgermole cleaned the rubble off the main platform.

"Yeah, but I had plenty of time to get out of the way, so it's not that big of a deal." He agreed as the bell rang, signaling the start of the next round.

Three of the four front row spectators watched with quiet interest as the Boulder's next match started, ending as quickly as his previous matches and sending Sokka even deeper into his fanatical frenzy. The Boulder made quick work of his other tournament opponents as well, working most of the crowd to even greater heights of excitement with each person he defeated. Naruto could understand why, it was taking every bit of his self restraint not to join them in what he had mentally dubbed 'Boulder-mania'.::

"And now, the moment you've all been waiting for." Xin Fu said after the Boulder's latest victory started to settle, letting the crowd quite a bit before he continued as a cloud of dust covered a rising platform. "The Boulder versus your champion..." He paused as the cloud settled to reveal a young girl wearing a simple green and white uniform and a long cape, holding up a large belt above her bun-styled hair. "The BLIND BANDIT!" The announcer's scream got the crowd going again in full force as chants of 'Bandit' as the two women beside you girl took the belt and cape from her before walking off stage.

"She can't really be blind, it's just part of her character right?" Katara asked suspiciously as the two twelve-year-olds looked closer.

"I think she is." Aang said softly when he saw her milky green eyes.

"I think she is... Going DOWN!" Sokka shouted as Momo peaked out of his bag, causing the Airbender to flinch away.

"She is blind." Naruto confirmed, tilting his head slightly to one side as the man dubbed the Boulder took a heavy step forward.

"The Boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young, blind girl." The burly man announced slowly.

"Sounds to me like you're scare, Boulder!" The girl taunted, causing the man's face to contort in annoyance.

"The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings and now he's ready to bury you in a Rockalanche!" The boulder declared as he struck an intimidating pose.

"Whenever you're ready, the Pebble!" She said, pointing at him before throwing her head back and laughing.

"This will not end well." Naruto announced quietly as he shook his head, noticing the somewhat distant look in Aang's eyes.

Before he could ask what was bothering him, his attention was brought back to the arena when the Boulder took a step forward in preparation for an attack. The thin layer of sweat on his body was barely visible to Naruto's trained eyes, though it didn't seem to be from exertion- the man had yet to truly exert himself in his other fights and he'd been given a couple minutes to rest between them. Blue eyes shifted between the combatants and he noticed the Blind Bandit move a foot and bring her eyes up as the Boulder began to bring up his other leg in preparation to bring it down hard. The young girl's foot sank into the stone floor and sank in, sending a churning line of earth rumbling towards the attacking man- catching the heel of his foot and forcing him to fall into a painful but perfect split and let out a strange high-pitched moan of pain a moment before the Bandit performed a simple chopping motion to launch him out of the ring and into the wall with three blunt spikes of earth smirking as soon as Xin Fu started to speak up.

"Your winner and still the champion!" Xin Fu bellowed as the girl threw an arm up victoriously. "The Blind Bandit!"

"No!" Sokka whined at seeing his champion defeated in such a painful manner.

"How did she do that?" Katara whispered incredulously.

"She waited, and listened." Aang answered with a smile as he turned to her before looking to Naruto. "You knew she would win."

"I had a feeling." He conceded as the announcer jumped from his tower with a jingling green bag in his hand.

"To make things a little more interesting, I'm offering up this sack of gold pieces to _anyone_ who can defeat the Blind Bandit!" Xin Fu declared loudly as he motioned toward the blind girl with an arm. "What? No one dares to face her?"

"I will!" Aang voiced mirthfully as he climbed the stairs into the ring.

"Go Aang! Avenge the Boulder!" Sokka shouted through cupped hands.

"Do people really want to see two little girls fighting out here?" The reigning champion taunted with a smirk.

"I don't really want to fight you, I want to talk to you." Aang explained, keeping his hands up by his head.

"Boo! No talking!" Sokka shouted, getting hit in the arm by his sister.

"Don't boo at him!" Katara scowled.

Immediately the bandit raise her arms up and shove a foot out toward the tattooed boy, sending a cloud of dust at him from which a large rock emerged. Aang was in the air immediately, letting the force of the emerging rock push him to safetly while using Arbending to keep himself gently suspended above the ground as he floated behind her. The girl scowled and turned around as soon as his toes scrapped the earthen floor.::

"Someone's a little light on his feet, what's your fighting name- the Fancy Dancer?" She sniped, glaring at him as she kept her arms held up in front of her as he grin sheepishly before being launched into the air by a rising column of earth. "Where'd you go?" She asked softly as he drifted behind her again.

"Please, wait!" Aang pleaded as he touched down again.

"There you are." She smirked, whipping around and raising a large boulder from the ground to hurl at him with a smooth motion, Aang left the ground of his own volition and spun around to build up power behind a blast of air that sent both her bolder and her out of the ring with a startled cry- much to the shock of the watching crowd.

"Please! Listen, I need an Earthbending teacher and I think it's supposed to be you." Aang said as he rand down the stairs following the fuming Earthbender as she stomped away.

"Whoever you are, just leave me alone." She ordered, opening a crude door in one of the walls before passing through and sealing it behind her before he could catch up.

"Wait!" He cried out a moment too late, walking back up to the ring after a moment of examining the once again solid wall- feeling a mountain of disappointment on his shoulders as Sokka claimed the belt and the money from the scowling Xin Fu after hugging him.

"Way to go champ." Sokka congratulated him, causing the younger boy to feel even worse.

~*~*~

"Are you sure you don't want to come back into the city with us?" Katara asked the next morning as the were getting ready.

"Yeah, it's about time for me to summon Gamakichi." Naruto said with a nod. "Besides, I want to stay blond for a while. Just come back and get me if you find anything out about this Blind Bandit."

"Sure thing." Aang said cheerfully as Momo flew off of his shoulder in favor of Naruto's unoccupied one. "Well, we'll see you soon."

"Yeah, hurry back!" The blond grinned as his three friends walked away before looking at the lemur on his shoulder. "You should probably give me some space Momo."

The flying primate chattered at him slightly before jumping over to Appa as Naruto began to gather the chakra he would need for the summoning again. A quick nip of his thumb drew the requisite blood out and Naruto performed the hand signs before slamming a palm into the ground. His grin was justified when he saw Gamakichi resting where his hand had been with a scroll across his back and something golden in his amphibious hands.::

"Yo! Naruto, took you long enough, I've been waiting for almost three hours for you." The toad croaked at him.

"Yeah, sorry about that, I didn't want to summon you too soon." The blond said, dropping down to sit in front of his tiny friend.

"Nice clothes, but you should probably change your hair color if you're going to adopt that look." Gamakichi said, appraising his summoner's new appearance. "Blond and brown don't mix all that well."

"I know, so what have you got for me?" He asked, shifting the subject easily.

"Well, the Hag wanted me to smack you on the head for making her worry so much- but I'm not quiet big enough for that so I'll skip it." He said, holding out the small golden object for Naruto, revealing it to be a watch. "Shizune sent this with so you'd be able to keep a regular schedule with your summonings, said it was set to Konoha standard time."

"Leave it to Nee-chan to think of the useful things." He grinned as he took the twenty-four hour analog watch with a smile.

"Yeah, she gives me the best treats." Gamakichi said with a nod before slipping the scroll of his back. "This if from Jiraiya, said he sealed some training scrolls at the bottom and he wanted me to tell you not to be a cheap bastard and get your own clothes- his words, not mine." The toad stated defensively as the blond took accepted the scroll.

"Yeah, that sounds like Ero-sennin. What about the others?" Naruto asked, remembering his last mission.

"They all survived, a couple of them had pretty close calls but they all lived thanks in part to those kids from the Sand showing up and saving them." The toad said with a nod. "That Gaara kid came to your funeral a couple days ago and actually started crying."

"Are you sure about that?" He asked, remembering what he knew about the unstable boy. "He really doesn't seem like the type to cry to me."

"Seems he really started to look up to you after your fight, changed his ways and all that." He responded with another nod. "He got seriously pissed when one of the more vocal villagers started bad mouthing you, picked the guy up by the ankle with his sand and walked over. 'Uzumaki Naruto was a greater man than scum like you can ever hope to be, if you ever insult him again- I will kill you!' The guy nearly pissed himself and ran away the second Gaara but him down."

"Now that sounds like Gaara." The blond stated at the mental imagery.

"A girl about your age with white eyes walked right up to him and hugged him after that too." Gamakichi reported. "That blond chick from the sand nearly fainted when she did it."

"Heh, of all the things to miss." Naruto sighed, reaching into one of his pockets before holding out a small blue crystal to the toad. "Here, I picked this up for you at Earth Rumble last night."

"Damn! This is good!" The toad declared as he ate it. "What is it?"

"Jennomite, rock candy." He answered with a grin.

"Well, that's everything, I guess I'll catch you later." Gamakichi said, releasing himself after Naruto gave him a nod.

"Alright Ero-sennin, let's see what you have to say." The blond said as he opened the scroll with a quick motion of his fingers and began to read the handwritten black script.

_Naruto,_

_There are many things I want to say to you in this letter, but with only a limited amount of time to write everything I have to say and still find you proper training manuals it is best that I am brief in my writing. First and foremost on the list of things I want you to know is that I am truly proud of you. You are one of my shining pupils, possibly better than the Fourth himself. But don't let that go to your brat, you still have a lot to learn and I still have a lot to teach._

The smile that had been forming on Naruto's face vanished as he read the last part, he huffed and muttered something about stupid mood-killing old perverts under his breath before continuing to read his letter from home.

_I suppose the time has come fore me to tell you about your heritage, I would have honestly preferred telling you this in person but circumstance seems to have worked against us in that regard. I'm sure you've wondered all your life about who your parents were, and you probably have a couple ideas about it yourself- I know you're smart even if you don't always use your head for thinking instead of breaking things with it. Truth be told, I knew your parents before you were born, you look a lot like them really. I wasn't supposed to tell you any of this until you either made chunin or turned sixteen, congratulations on your posthumous promotion kid- you're one of the lucky few who gets to live to enjoy being chunin after your funeral._

The spark of Naruto's curiosity ignited as he re-read that paragraph several times to make sure he had indeed understood what it said, he grinned once he had satisfactorily confirmed that it indeed said he was going to learn the greatest secret that had plagued him since he was young.

_And now that I've run out of excuses (and sake) I guess it's time for you to know. _

Naruto smirked when he noticed the tiny sake stains on the paper that confirmed Jiraiya had indeed been drinking when he wrote it.

_Your mother was a beautiful woman from the former Whirlpool Country named Uzumaki Kushina, she's where you get a lot of your ninjutsu skills and personality from. You were given her name and family crest because your father had too many enemies for you to live safely with his name, big help that was I guess._

The blond felt his pride swell greatly with the knowledge of who his mother was.

_I feel the need to remind you now that this scroll is important so you shouldn't destroy it after you read the next part._

His pride turned back to curiosity as soon as he read that line, he could only wonder why the pervert would write something like that. Slowly his eyes shifted to the next line and he began to read again.

_Your father, as you may or may not have guessed, was Konoha's own legendary Yellow Flash Namikaze Minato- though you're probably more familiar with him by his other title, the Yondaime Hokage._

Naruto swallowed as he read that, all sense of pride and joy had flown out the window with those words. Of course he knew who the Fourth was, he was the man responsible for making him live in hell on earth. His hands trembled slightly as he remembered the night his greatest hero had fallen in his eyes- the night Mizuki had told him why he was hated. Learning that the fourth had chosen him for the sealing had been a horrible smear on the great man's golden image in his mind. Naruto had figured that he had been picked because he had the misfortune of being born that night- there were several other children born he knew, but consciously he had put it off as bad luck. Still Naruto shook himself off the thought and tried to focus on reading the letter instead of his personal thoughts.::

_I really wish I was with you so I could tell you this face to face instead of through correspondence. I'm sorry to say, that it was your father who sealed him inside of you all those years ago because you were his only child. You're probably pretty pissed right now, you should go blow off some steam before you continue so you'll be able to focus_

Momo looked up from his perch on Appa's head when he heard Naruto's scroll hit the ground, the blond was trembling visibly where he stood, seemingly unaware that he was no longer holding his letter. Both ten-pound lemur and ten-ton bison flinched away from the scream he let out a moment before his fist passed through the slender trunk of a pine. Neither animal could truly understand what he was saying, but his body language and actions spoke loudly enough. Minutes of screaming and destroying trees later Naruto's rampage finally started to slow, having just enough energy left for a spiraling ball of energy to chew through one last tree before he fell to his knees and glared at the sky.::

He barely seemed to register Momo's weight on his shoulder as he focused on the clouds while tears slipped out of his eyes. The little lemur's soft chatter finally broke through to his thoughts and he turned his head to see the little creature doing everything it could to comfort him. The blond managed a faint smile as the winged lemur hugged his head while chattering soothingly. A hand braced the small animal against him as he walked over to the six legged Sky Bison who lowed at him slightly before he dropped against one of the creature's trunk-like legs and settled into the soft fur.::

"I-I hate him. He's my father, and I hate him." Naruto whispered to the chattering lemur attatched to his head. "I understand why he did it, but he left me all alone and all I can think is that I hope Hell is hot enough for him."

"Hey! Naruto, we've found here!" Aang's voice called out before the boy came into sight. "We..." His voice faltered when he saw all the down trees and small craters littering the area. "Whoa, what happened?"

"That, yeah, that about sums up my thoughts." Sokka agreed as he looked around, noticing the unraveld scroll laying on the ground and moving toward it- blinking slightly when Naruto appeared in front of him with Momo still clinging to his head. "Is everything all right Naruto?"

"Yeah, I... just got some news I wasn't quiet ready for." He nodded, slipping the message scroll into his sash. "I guess I didn't take it too well, sorry about the damage."

"You did all this?" Aang asked, Naruto held up a healed but still bloody hand in answer. "Must have been some bad news."

"Not bad, just not something I was ready to hear." He sighed, shaking his head. "So, you were saying something about finding her?"

"Yeah, I had a vision back in the Swamp about that girl and her pet flying boar." The Airbender explained excitedly while nodding. "Well, it turns out that a flying boar is the symbol of the Bei Fong family here in Gaoling so we're going to go check them out and see if we can't find anything."

"Works for me." Naruto said with a grin, forming a few handseals and changing his hair back to the longer black he had used before. "Let's go!"

"Let me see your hand first Naruto." Katara instructed.

"It's nothing really Katara, I'm fine." He said, though he still extended his arm to keep from angering her.

"I'll be the judge of that." She stated, drawing water from her bag and surrounding both of their hands with it. "Wow, you really are fine, it's like you weren't even hurt at all."

"Heh, told you." He shrugged, pulling back his now blood-free hand.. "So, where are we going exactly?"

*~*~*

"That's the flying boar from my vision." Aang stated, pointing out the large mural painted above the front gate of the impressive compound the four were looking down on. "Come on."

"So let me get this straight, we're sneaking over the back wall of a highly guarded clan compound just to see if your mystical swamp vision was actually a vision and not your mind playing tricks on you." Naruto summarized as he easily followed the other three down the side of the cliff that help protect the Bei Fong estate.

"That pretty much sums it up." Sokka agree, having a little more trouble with his footing than Naruto. "Do you have any problems with that?"

"Not really, no." The younger boy said with a shake of his head.

"Do you two have to talk so much? You're going to get us caught." Katara scolded, throwing a quick glare back to them.

A mumbled apology was the last thing the two said as they continued down to their destination over the somewhat tricky back way. When they arrived at the far wall Aang leapt over the barrier with the aid of his Airbending and landed softly on the other side while Naruto helped Sokka and Katara onto the roof, waiting for them both to get across before getting a bit further back and jumping across unassisted. The quartet of intruders quickly made its way across the courtyard to cover before they could be seen by any patrolling guards, coming to a rest behind some bushes. A faint rumble was the only warning they got before they ground beneath their feet expanded and launched them in the air- Katara and Aang landed in some hedged while Naruto and Sokka hit the ground- though Naruto was able to stay on his feet thanks to his training, Sokka was not so lucky.::

"What are you doing here Twinkle-toes?" The girl known as the Blind Bandit demanded as she glared at him with her blind green eyes.

"How'd you know it was me?" Aang asked.

"Don't answer to 'Twinkle-toes, it's not manly!" Sokka said in a whiny tone.

"Says the guy with the purse and matching belt." Naruto quipped as the other's started to right themselves.

"It's not a purse, it's a bag!" The older boy protested, clutching the object in question to him defensively.

"How did you find me?" The young Earthbender demanded, ignoring the commentary.

"Well, a crazy king told me I had to find an Earthbender who listenst to the earth." Aang started to explain quickly. "And then I had a vision in a magic swamp and..."

"What Aang is trying to say is, he's the Avatar." Katara cut him off too keep him from sounding too insane. "And if he doesn't master Earthbending soon, he won't be able to defeat the Fire Lord."

"Not my problem." The girl declared as she stuck a hand in the Waterbender's face. "Now get out of here or I call the guards."

"Look, we all have to do our part to win this war." Sokka spoke up in a wizened tone. "And yours in to teach Aang Earthbending."

"Guards! Guards, help!" She cried out after the tanned boy was done, within moments Aang, Katara and Sokka were over the wall with Naruto nowhere in sight as the mansion guards came running.

"Toph, what happened?" One of the pair asked softly as he ran to her side as she faced on of the bushes.

"I thought I heard someone, I got scare." She said quietly, keeping her focus on the one bush.

"You know your father doesn't want you wandering around the grounds without supervision, Toph." The same guard chided her softly.

"Are you sure there's no one there?" She asked, suddenly looking somewhat confused.

"Yes Toph, it's just the three of us." He answered, taking her small hand in his larger one. "Come on, let's get you inside."

"Okay." She said, narrowing her eyes at the bush before she was led away.

"Aang, where's Naruto?" Sokka asked quietly as soon as the guards were gone.

"I don't know, he was with us when we were talking to that girl but he disappeared after she called for the guards." Aang asnwered quietly peering over the roof to see the boy in question preparing to jump the wall.

"What happened, where did you go?" Sokka asked as soon as the former-blond was on the roof next to them

"I didn't go anywhere, but I did discover something interesting." He said with a smirk. "She can see."

"What, I though you said she was blind?" Katara said questioningly.

"I can't explain it, but she has some way of seeing that is different from normal sight." He stated. "She was staring right at me the whole time she was talking with the guards."

"She was staring at the bush." Sokka protested.

"Yeah, that's what I had changed into." Naruto agreed with a nod.

"As fascinating as that is, it still doesn't help with convincing her to teach me Earthbending." Aang said somewhat sourly as he tapped his fingers against the ceramic tiles before breaking out into a grin.

~*~*~

Strong hands wrapped gently around a fragile glass teapot and lifted it into the air before the lid is pulled away and used to wave the delicately scented steam toward a now smiling man's face. Loa Bei Fong's smile lasts only a second before he takes a sip of the hot tea inside, enjoying the momentary beauty of its flavor on his tongue before he swallows. One ringed hand replaces the lid to keep the drink warm before the raven-haired man begins to lower it back to the serving tray and speak in a soft tone.

"I'm pleased to hear that Toph's private lessons are going well." The man serious looking man announced softly as he brought his hands to rest on his legs. "But I want to be sure she's not trying anything too dangerous."

"Absolutely not." The thin-faced Master Yu assured him, glancing over to Toph as she sat in the seat next to him. "I'm keeping her at the beginners level, basic forms and breathing exercised only."

"Very good." Loa nodded just before one of his servants entered the room with his hands together inside his robe and his head slightly down as a proper servant should.

"Excuse me sir, but you have a visitor." The servant announced as he bowed appropriately.

"Who thinks they are so important that they can just come to my home unannounced?" Lao demanded, straightening slightly at the announcement.

"Uh, the Avatar, Sir." He proclaimed softly much to Toph's shock and annoyance before backing out politely.

"I see. My apologies Master Yu, but we will have to finish this another time." The house-head said firmly as he looked at the Earthbending instructor. "Poppy, I'll let you handle dinner, I'll go greet out guest personally."

"Yes dear." His wife nodded as he stood and walked toward the entrance.

Little more than an hours time passed before eight people were seated at the tall dining table, Lao and Yu sat at the two ends while Aang, Katara and Sokka lined one side with Toph, Poppy and Naruto were seated across from them respectively. It took a good portion of the Earthbending instructor's restraint to keep from looking repulsed by Sokka's atrocious eating habits as he patiently ate his own food. The dark haired boy on his other side seemed to be having trouble holding back his laughter at the sight, but Yu had to give him credit for his seemingly effective efforts.

"Blow on it." Lao ordered as one of the servants put Toph's soup down for her. "It's too hot for her."

"Allow me." Aang offered politely, shifting his had toward Toph's food and flicking a miniature whirlwind over much to the enjoyment of the Bei Fong's who were quick to offer compliments for the trick, save for Toph who continued to stare blankly at the Avatar with unseeing eyes.

"Avatar Aang, it's an honor to have you visit us." Poppy said in a regal tone as the boy smile politely at her while Katara looked over at her brother as he continued stuffing his face.

"In your opinion, how much longer do you think the war will last?" Lao Bei Fong asked polite after taking a small bite of his food.

"I'd like to defeat the Fire Lord by the end of summer, but I can't do that without finding an Earthbending teacher first." He stated, looking intently at Toph who scowled at him slightly.

"Well, Master Yu is the finest teacher in the land." The regal man stated, motioning a hand to the Earthbender who was busy wiping his mouth of stray food bits at the end of the table with a silken napkin. "He's been teaching Toph since she was little."

"Then she must be a great Earthbender." The Avatar said pointedly as she smiled at her. "Probably good enough to teach someone else." He let out a yelp when something unseen by the others hit him in the leg, Naruto repressed a smirk and focused on eating at a measured pace while the blind Earthbender smiled delicately and took a bite of her own food.

"Toph is still learning the basics." Yu stated plainly as he looked at the tattooed boy.

"Yes, and sadly because of her blindness, I don't think she'll ever become an Earthbending master." Toph's father said quietly, causing Aang Katara and Sokka to exchange curious glances before Aang spoke up again.

"Oh, I'm sure she's better than you think she is." The grey-eyed boy said a moment before his face was shoved into his stew.

"Indeed, Lao-sama, the strongest people tend to be those who are most underestimated in my limited experience." Naruto spoke sagely as Aang moved the bowl from his face to the top of his head while scowling at the blind bender, accidentally dropping his chopstick when he saw Aang smirk before inhaling for dramatically for a sneeze. "Oops." The young man followed his chopstick under the table not a moment to soon, narrowly avoiding getting pasted by his food before sitting up and looking over at the Bei Fong women next to him who were now wearing their meal. "Oh my."

"What's your problem?!" Toph demanded as she stood up, discarding the bowl that had previously been stuck to her face.

"What's _your_ problem?" The young Avatar shot back.

"Well then, shall we move to the living room for desert?" Poppy interrupted politely as she cleaned her face.

*~*~*

Aang ran his hand across Appas broad forehead as the massive bison peered in through the open window while Katara and Sokka lounged on the large green bed with Momo beside in his little green bag. Naruto sat firmly planted on the ceiling with his chakra as he picked up reading in Jiraiya's letter when he had left off when he had lost control of his temper, with some effort he managed to get past that part of the message and continue on to learn that Jiraiya had detailed another form of chakra control for him to learn in the letter before going on to explain the true nature of the Shadow Cloning technique, which was surprisingly more useful than Naruto had ever thought it could be- and who couldn't use an extra pair of hands or twelve around the house?::

"Goodnight buddy." Aang said to his bison as the creature lowed at him softly, the young man let out a shocked squawk before getting into an awkward fighting stance when he saw Toph standing in the doorway.

"Relax." The blind girl ordered before taking a shallow breath. "Look, I'm sorry about dinner- let's call a truce, okay?"

Aang stared at her for a moment before relaxing visibly.

"Alright." He said with a nod.

"Say, where's the other guy that was with you?" She asked, turning her head around the room slowly.

"Up there." Sokka stated blandly, pointing to the ceiling.

"What are you..." She started before Naruto dropped to the floor suddenly, causing her to flinch back. "Holy shit!"

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." Naruto said as he looked over his shoulder.

"How the heck did you do that?" Toph asked after recomposing herself.

"It's one of his little crazy ninja things." Sokka spoke up again. "You kind of get used to it after a while."

"Right, anyway, Twinkle-toes, I wanted to talk with you." She sighed. "Come take a walk with me."

"Okay." Aang said, patting Appa lightly one last time before following the pale-eyed girl.

"So, Naruto, are you ever going to tell us what that scroll says?" Sokka asked as the two preteens left.

"Maybe, when I trust you a little more and you know me a little better." He answered cryptically as he slipped past Appa through the window.

"Where are you going?" Katara asked. "You aren't following them are you?"

"What do you take me for, a two bit spy?" Naruto scoffed, causing her to lower her head slightly with shame. "Nah, I'm just going to do a little bit of the training Ero-sennin suggested in his letter, there's plenty of grass around here, so it's the perfect place."

"Right, well, don't make too much noise crazy ninja guy." Sokka yawned as he laid back on the mattress. "Man, this thing is really comfortable, it just sucks the life right out of you."

Naruto smirked slightly when he say Katara nod in agreement before he slipped fully outside, he smiled at one of the guards he passed who simply gave him a small nod of acknowledgment before continuing on his route. The shinobi's light footsteps could barely be heard as he crossed the pavement until he reached a peaceful spot with plenty of luxurious green grass. He took a deep breath as he remembered Jiraiya's description of the exercise and began to focus his chakra to the soles of his feet, moving one foot out onto the grass experimentally as his bodily energy flow out over the numerous blades. His concentration didn't waver as he focused on reinforcing the grass blades to support his weight like he did when walking on water before he tried to focus on making himself cling to the very tips of the plants as he had for tree climbing.::

He held his eyes closed and remained focused on the bipartisan task of strengthening the tiny shoots while sticking to them as he raised his other foot and touched it to the grass. A self-satisfied smirk found it's way to Naruto's face and he opened his eyes, immediately loosing the concentration he needed for the exercise and dropping to the two incest solid earth as the grass bent beneath him. Naruto sighed and stepped off the foliage just before a the second on-duty guard passed by him, he gave the passing man a small wave and got another nod in returned. His fingers came up to form a single seal as soon as the larger man had passed and soon he was joined by two copies of himself who immediately took up the exercise. A short minute into the training a dull thumping on the far side of the complex caught his ear, tapping one clone on the shoulder he sent it to check out whatever made the sound- he figured he may as well test the scouting potential of the technique while he had the opportunity to do so.::

The currently raven-haired boy closed his eyes and patiently waited for the clone to disperse itself and transfer the knowledge back to him. Crystalline eyes snapped wide open as soon the transfer happened and immediately he dispelled his second clone before rushing down the path, leapfrogging over the one guard's head effortlessly as he ran before the man could say anything Naruto turned back to face him and ordered him to go get Lao and Poppy before continuing toward the room he and the other's had been put up in. Katara let out a startled yelp when he suddenly popped in through the window.::

"Naruto, what's wrong?" She asked when she saw the look on his face.

"I think Aang and Toph have been taken." He swallowed to catch his breath before continuing. "I've sent on the othe guards to get her parents, follow me."

"How do you know all this?" Sokka asked as he tried to keep up while pulling his boots on.

"What's going on?" Lao demanded as the three children passed by him and the guard he was talking with.

"Toph and Aang have been taken, follow me." Naruto ordered without pausing, immediately husband and wife shared a concerned look and followed, struggling slightly to keep up with the boy's quick pace.

"Sir! Something's happened!" The other on-duty guard shouted as he approached the group. "Toph and the Avatar are missing, and there are two large gouges in the ground."

"Yes Baojia, I had heard something happened." Lao said firmly as the group continued following Naruto. "Which raises the question, how did _you_ know something had happened Naruto Uzumaki?"

"I know because I heard a noise when I was at the far end of the complex, I checked it out and sent a guard to get you when I knew what had happened." Naruto answered as they came up on the abduction site.

"What noise, I didn't hear anything." Baojing said, giving the boy a suspicious glance.

"It was a rapid thumping sound, I heard it because my hearing is far above average." He stated as Sokka walked over and picked up a knife that held a scroll to the ground.

"Whoever took Aang and Toph left his." The Water Tribe warrior said, shifting the knife so Katara could take the scroll.

"If you want to see your daughter again, bring five hundred gold pieces to the Arena." The waterbender read. "It's signed Xin Fu and the Boulder.

"I can't believe it." Sokka said somberly, lifting the scroll from his sisters hands before his eyes lit up. "I have the Boulder's autograph!"

"I can't decide where it's his intelligence or his stupidity that comes in waves." Naruto remarked dryly as Katara's eye twitched at her brother's antics. "Even I didn't act that stupid back home."

"Master Yu, I need you to help me get my daughter back." Lao pleaded with the Earthbender, prompting Katara and Naruto to turn to him.

"We're going with you." The dark-haired maided stated firmly as the Bei Fong Matriach kneeled between the two gouged in the grass.

"Poor Toph, she must be so scared." The woman whispered as she gripped her hands.

~*~*~

"You think you're so tough, why don't you come up here so I can smack that grin of your face!" Toph shouted down at Xinfu from her suspended cage.

"I'm not smiling." The muscular man informed her with an irate growl.

"Yeah, she's about as scared as a rabid badger with a bee sting." Naruto stated when he saw the girl suspended above the stadium floor.

"Toph!" Lao cried out when he saw her as well.

"Here's your money, now let them go." Sokka ordered as he dropped the bag of coins in front of Yu who promptly sent it over to Xin Fu with Earthbending.

"Let her down." The man ordered with a tight wave of his arm after checking out the bag to make sure it was really gold, within moments her cage was lowered and the Boulder released her to her father's custody.

"What about Aang?" Katara asked tensely as Lao led his Daughter away.

"I think the Fire Nation will pay a heft price for the Avatar." Xin Fu announced as he unrolled the wanted poster in his hand with Aang's pictured on it. "Now, get out of my ring!"

Katara and Sokka momentarily moved to arm themselves until the Earthbenders from the previous night's competition revealed their presence though various dramatic entrances. Naruto shifted his blue eyed gaze up to Aang as he hung helplessly in his cage.::

"Go, I'll be okay." The young monk said comfortingly to his friends ad he waved them away with a gesture.

"Come on." Naruto said, glancing at the bald monk and winking quickly as he pulled the other two away. "We can't take all of them like this."

"Right." Katara said, moving away from Aang with one quick look back before following after Toph with her brother.

"So you're big bad Earthbenders, huh?" Naruto asked as the seven men started to walk away with Aang's cage being easily carried by the Hippo.

"You want to make something of it punk?" Xin Fu growled at him.

"Nope, I'm just distracting you while the big guy gets attacked." He stated, smirking when two clones of the former blond burst out of the ground and drove their feet into the Hippo's massive stomach as hard as they could.

"GUT CHECK!" The twin replications shouted as the man stumbled back.

"That looks heavy, let me help you!" A fourth Naruto grinned , slapping his to the surface of the cell and using a combination of chakra and momentum to free it from the heavyset fighter.

"What the hell?!" Xin Fu bellowed as a final Naruto burst from the stadium floor to catch the falling casket on his back, grunting with effort as he stabilized himself with the aid of chakra before he started running toward the opposite side of the stadium.

"It's called a snatch and grab, dumbass!" The unoccupied Naruto taunted, receiving a rock spike to the gut that dispelled him in a puff of smoke.

"Stop him!" The fight announcer shouted.

"Naruto? What's going on?" Aang asked after finally recovering from being jostled about.

"Can't talk, cage heavy, running for life." He grunted as the last of his clones was destroyed a moment before a wall of earth erupted between him and the Earthbenders he was escaping a small smirk made it's way to his face as he looked over to see Katara and Sokka standing behind a battle ready Toph "About time, this damn thing is heavy!"

"Excuse me, what's going on?" Aang asked in a confused tone. "I can't see anything!"

"Brace yourself, I'm dropping you." Naruto warned, dropping the cage the same instant the rock wall was brought down by the other Earthbenders.

One of Naruto's hidden kunai was in hand the moment he saw the earth controling fighter's charging at him, something wrapped around his ankle to keep him from charging. His blue eyes shifted to where Toph was, easily allowing him to see the trail of disturbed earth that led right to her while she held Katara and Sokka back with her arms. The earthen floor released him with a shift of the blind girl's foot after she declared that the Earthbender's were hers and his weapon was hidden away again before anyone could blink.::

The dark-haired shinobi watched curiously as Toph slammed one foot to the ring and began to raise her trembling arms before bringing them tight to her chest and driving other foot into the floor. Naruto could only grin madly when he saw the wave of dust and rubble expand over the rectangular platform, the power of the blast was enough to stop and scatter the charging men to keep them from working together. Naruto closed his eyes and focused on his hearing to get a sense was going on in the clound.::

"Hit is harder!" Aang's voice caught his attention as Sokka tried to break through part of the cage.

"I'm trying!" Sokka shot back, continuing to hit it with a rock as Naruto walked over with his hands raised.

"Move." He ordered Katara who was busy trying to pry the bottome open, his hands were working in unison to form an unstable ball of visible energy.

"What are you going to do?" Katara asked, moving away as the ball took an almost perfect spherical shape.

"Rasengan." He stated,driving the partially finished ball into the bottom of the cage and watching as his chakra carved a spiral pattern deep into the metal- slicing through the lock at the bottome and freeing the Airbender who was immediately on his feet ready for a fight. "Relax Aang, everything is being handled."

Sokka and Katara pointed to the now visible section in the middle of the ring where the Boulder and the Hippo were now standing while making intimidating noises as Toph stepped onto the large circular stone in the middle. A battle cry from above brought attention to the masked Earthbender with wild hair swinging at Toph's back while the other two stepped up to the small circle. A few small movements on Toph's part set the massive disc into motion, lining the Boulder and the Hippo up so that the masked bender slammed into both of them instead. Two sharp motions from her arms sent the dog piled men crashing back down to join the other three she had already defeated just as they were starting to get back up.::

"I never knew, your daughter is amazing!" Naruto heard Master Yu exclaim quietly to Toph's father in the stand before she cleared out the dust cloud.

Naruto took a seat on Aang's former prison when he saw Xin Fu standing at the far side of the platform, idly he wondered how much people would have to see Toph's virtual massacre of masculine pride as Xin Fu cracked the joints in his neck by shifting his head slightly before falling into a fighting stance. Abandoning all teachings of culture and proper lady-like behavior, Toph turned her head off to the side and spat loudly to clear some of the dust from her mouth and sneered at the muscular man focusing on her. In the stands, Lao looked like he was about to die of a heart attack when he saw his little girl fall into her battle form before she started circling the central disc in sync with Xin Fu.::

All the on lookers were shocked to at least some degree at the speed which Xin Fu attacked, sending eight boulders of varying sizes straight for the blind girl. As he watched this fight, Naruto didn't bother restraining his cheering as Toph brought up to triangular sheets of earth to defend herself from the onslaught. A quick pushing motion on Toph's part turned her defense into an offense, though a small display of agility allowed Xin Fu to dodge to the side and shove his hand into the earth to dislodge a stone. Toph's face remained impassive as she shifted out of the rock's path before driving her hand into the ground and sending the stunned announcer crashing into the stands.::

"Well, that was fun to watch." Naruto said with a grin as he walked over the blind girl while Yu made a comment about Toph being the greatest Earthbend he'd ever seen. "But you got a little dirt on you."

"So do you." She said flatly, waving an Arm toward him and hitting him in the chest with a stream of loosened dirt that knocked him flat. "That's for the badger comment."

"Ow." The blond grumbled, shaking off the earthen coating and reaching back behind him to move the kunai blade that had dug into his thigh. "I have really got to find a better place for those."

*~*~*

A ten minute ride on Appa filled with an uncomfortable silence brought the six people back to the Bei Fong estate. After their arrival Toph was immediately scooped up by her crying mother, much to her protesting. Aang and the others were led into the reception room and seated on the a practically crafted stone bench while Lao and Poppy took their place on the wide raised thrown on the other side. Toph stood in the middle of the room by herself, her head tilted slightly down- so she had her focus on her feet rather than out of any sense of shame as she took a breath to explain herself.::

"Dad, I know it's hard for you to see me this way," Toph started to speak slowly. "But the obedient little helpless blind girl that you think I am just isn't me. I love fighting! I love being an Earthbender, and I'm really, really good at it. I know I've kept my life secret from you, but you were keeping me secret from the whole world." She paused to catch her breath as Aang and the other's watched on quietly. "You did it to keep me safe, I know, but I'm twelve years old and I've never had a real friend. So now that you see who I really am, I hope it doesn't change the way you feel about me."

"Of course it doesn't change the way I feel about you, Toph." Lao said in a soft, fatherly voice. "It's made me realize something."

"It has?" Toph asked, looking up hopefully.

"Yes, I've let you have far too much freedom." He said sternly. "From now on you will be cared for and guarded twenty-four hours a day.

"Stubborn fool." Naruto whispered too quietly for anyone to hear under his breath.

"But dad!" Toph started to protest.

"We are doing this for your own good, Toph." Poppy cut her off softly as Lao stood up and turned to the guards.

"Please escort the Avatar and his friends out." He said, as he pointed toward the exit. "They are no longer welcome here."

"I'm sorry, Toph." Aang apologized as the four of them were led out.

"I'm sorry too." She said as tears started to slip from her eyes before he was led completely out of the room. "Goodbye, Aang."

"This way." Baojia said, setting a hand on Naruto's shoulder and earning himself a glare.

"You should remove that hand before I do." The disguised blond warned quietly, smirking when the guard tightened his grip slightly- the larger man let out a sharp yipping noise as Naruto pinched a pressure point and began leading him around. "I warned you once. Touch me again without my permission, and I'm keeping the hand."

"Naruto, don't bully the guards." Aang chided him softly.

"Sorry, Baojia-san." Naruto apologized softly to the guard as they were led out of the gate. "I know you were just doing your job."

"Yeah, I really wish you could teach me how you did that thought." The muscled man said as he rubbed his aching appendage. "I probably wouldn't need to hit anyone ever again."

"Look into acupuncture." He advised over his shoulder before the gate closed behind him before following the others up the main path to the small flat where Aang used his small whistle to summon the great sky bison.

"Hey, Naruto, you said that thing you used to break Aang out was a rasengan right?" Sokka asked as they checked through their belongings.

"Kind of." He answered, releasing the transformation on his hair and returning to his usual blond self. "Why?"

"Well with the way you described it, I thought it would do more damage." He said with a shrug.

"It wasn't completely formed, I stopped at the second stage." Naruto responded, looking up at the boy in the saddle. "Toss me my pouch, would you?"

"What do you mean, second stage?" Sokka asked as he complied with the blond's request, watching as he stared to remove the hidden weapons from his person.

"The rasengan has three stages, I figured that Aang is kind of fond of his legs- so I stopped at the power stage." He said, as Katara walked over to Aang who was looking down at the Bei Fong home from the edge of the cliff.

"Don't worry Aang, we'll find you a teacher." She said, smiling at him softly. "There are plenty of amazing Earthbenders out there."

"Not like her." Aang sighed, walking over and taking his place on Appa.

"Wait!" A feminine voice cried out as Toph came barreling out of the bushes wearing her Blind Bandit uniform.

"Toph! What are you doing here?" Aang asked happily at the sight of the blind girl.

"My dad changed his mind." She lied with a smile. "He said I was free to travel the world."

"Well, we should get out of here," Sokka said after a quick glance to his sister. "Before your dad changes his mind again."

"Good idea." Toph agreed with a nod.

"You're going to be a great Earthbending teacher, Toph" Aang said happily.

"Speaking of which," She said with a foxy grin. "I want to show you something."

"Okay." The trusting boy said, jumping down from his perch and getting launched into the nearest tree by a large rock as soon as he touched the ground.

"Now we're even." She said, extending her hand where she had heard Sokka speak from as the Airbender fell to the ground. "I'll take the belt back."

"Here." Sokka said, tossing her the belt with a disappointed sigh and hitting her in the head with it.

"Ow!" She yelped from the ground.

"Sorry." The fighter apologized.

"Well, I guess this means you're part of the gang now." Naruto said, dropping to the ground and lifting Toph to her feet. "So, welcome aboard."

"Damn, you're nearly as light on your feet as Twinkle-toes is." She snorted.

"Yeah, well, it's part of my job." He stated before grasping the back of her shirt tightly. "Hang on, I'll give you a lift."

"What are you..." Her words cut off into a shout of surprise as Naruto jumped back into the saddle with her in tow. "Don't _ever_ do that again!" She shouted, punching him in the arm as soon as she recovered from the experience.

"Sorry." The blond apologized.

* * *

**A/N 2: Meh, I really don't like this chapter at all, I'll probably re-write it in the future when I've got a better version in mind. It's the longest chapter so far, but I hate it- the way it was written makes me feel so unclean, I think my Muse is bathing herself with Comet and a wire brush to get the feeling off. For those of you who skipped it, and I really don't blame you, this basically runs through the events of the episode The Blind Bandit with just a few little quips on Naruto's part- then only 'modified' parts I somewhat like are Naruto's near crushing scenes in the Earth Rumble and the Dinner scene where he 'accidentally' drops his chopsticks and avoids getting covered with dinner by going after them- I just love the pseudo-innocent 'Oh my' line. Let's see, I completely skipped the part where Aanga and the other's go back to the Earthbending academy in favor of having Naruto summon Gamakichi to get his letter from Jiraiya and he learns who his father was- big shocker there (cue eye roll). Naruto flips his lid and does a little redecoration of the forest, there's a little Momo comfort scene that I thought was kind of cute. And the rest pretty much follows the episode. *shudders slightly* I feel so dirty after this chapter, what I hate most about it is that it's a necessary chapter and I liked the episode. Anyway, the next chapter will be better *gets out a sharp stick and starts poking this chapter with it* and I'll try to get this steaming heap of (guess what word goes here) re-written so that it's better. My apologies to those who hate this chapter as much as I do. I'm going to go borrow the Comet from my muse and wash my brain out before I start the next chapter.**

**PS- Now you know why I knocked Naruto out before the whole Avatar Day fiasco and had him k. all the way through.**

***Walks off to go find the industrial strength cleaners*  
**


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